


M.I.A. (Missing an Important Angus)

by AceFace98



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: (can't believe freezing isn't a tag), (shit that's a TAG?), Ango is missing time for these jokers to solve a mystery, Angst, Cold Weather, Emotional Manipulation, Freezing, Gen, His Dark Materials Inspired, Hurt/Comfort, Kidnapping, Mystery, Nearly Freezing To Death, Parent-Child Relationship, School, Threats, Threats of Violence, if you count the IPRE as parent and Angus as child
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-29
Updated: 2018-03-16
Packaged: 2019-03-10 23:15:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 31,493
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13511787
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AceFace98/pseuds/AceFace98
Summary: Angus McDonald didn’t take on a lot of cases these days. Too busy with school work, and juggling the massive family he suddenly seemed to find himself with. But, of course, there was an exception to every rule, and some cases needed someone of his skill.And this one, especially, has everyone spooked - mass kidnappings, all children under 14 years of age. Each snatching was more extreme than the last, even including a kidnapping from a school during lessons. Of course, this case might be a little bit extra dangerous for Angus, since he is a child himself, but he’s being careful. He always takes a chaperone when he goes out, he's moved in with Taako and Kravitz for the time being, and, plus, he can’t honestly remember the last time anyone got the drop on him anyways.He should’ve been untouchable, but it seems the kidnappers are more resourceful than anyone knew, than anyone could’ve guessed. This might have been the first case too difficult for the world’s greatest detective.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Have an idea that's been itching at me for waaaay too long!  
> I have a solid plot cooked up here, kinda sort of inspired by the His Dark Materials series, if only by the base the Gobblers/Magisterium had near the end of the first book. No real spoilers to the Golden Compass, just heavily inspired ^^

Beth Minnow shared a room with Abigail Minerva, because of everyone at School there were only four of them with M last names and she was unlucky. This got to be a bit frustrating for a number of reasons; one, Beth had never had to share a room with anyone before, and, two, Abigail was  _ not _ her ideal roommate. She took her shower turn first, every time, always complained when Beth decided to keep the lights on an extra half hour for reading before bed (even though she opted into reading time, like,  _ constantly _ ), and at every Social period Abigail would go over to her stupid friends and complain about Beth and how much of a terrible roommate she was. 

But the worst reason was that Abigail didn’t like that Beth made friends with the “trouble kid.” 

Which was why him showing up in  _ their _ dorm was far from a good thing.

But here they were, Beth opening her eyes to her friend gently shaking her shoulders, rousing her from sleep. He at least had the decency to look a little ashamed of himself, giving her a small apologetic grin. His braces and glasses both glittered in what little light snuck in under the crack in the door.

His name was Angus McDonald, and Beth thought he was the coolest kid ever. 

“Angus,” She said slowly, near venomously. “I was sleeping.”

Coolest kid ever aside, he had no tack. None whatsoever.

Angus grinned a bit, rubbing the back of his neck. “Sorry!” He whispered. “But I needed some stuff.”

Beth wanted to groan, curl up and go back to sleep. That was rude, though, even if she wished he just stole her stuff when he needed it rather than being all chivalrous and asking first. But, well, Angus was only one kid, really, and he was doing good work.

“Whatcha need?” She asked, sitting up and yawning. “My stuff’s in the Garbage Bag.”

“Of course,” Angus says, nodding.

They’re weren’t actually supposed to call them Garbage Bags, but of all the rules to break, the bag names weren’t worth punishing a kid over. The full, proper name of the bags was “Identifying Personal Belonging Bag,” but no one was calling it the IPBB. Someone, at some point, had said it was just where they stuck all their garbage, and the name had stuck.

It was a pretty simple system, if annoying. Everything each student owned went into a number of bags - a clothing bag, a laundry bag, or one of the many totes. At the end of the day, everything settled into the very large Garbage Bag tote, and the zipper was shut. It was a bit like a giant duffle bag, with each student’s name neatly printed on the face of it, as well as their age, allergies, blood type, and Guide. 

The Garbage Bag was a precaution, they were all told. An “in case of emergency” kind of thing. Beth couldn’t figure out - for the life of her - how she was even supposed to pick up the stupid thing. She could barely lift her laundry bag on its own when it was full. Clearly, there was another reason, one they  _ weren’t _ being told. But, at this point, that was the same for 80% of the other rules governing their lives, so Beth had to just roll with it for now.

“Where’s your tote for Class?” Angus asked, scaling up the bunk bed. There were two bunk beds in the room - Beth slept on the bottom bunk of her bed set, stashing her Garbage Bag on the upper one. Abigail slept on the top bunk of her set and stashed her Garbage bag at the foot of the bottom bunk. She likes to argue that  _ her _ bag was in a smarter location, but, hey, Beth had never once stubbed her toe on her bag trying to go to the bathroom, so she was pretty sure  _ she _ was the one winning.

Beth yawned again. “Should be on top of my laundry bag.” She explained. “So, like, right up front? Probably near the middle. Whatcha need from that?”

“You guys did jewelry for Crafts today, yeah?” Angus asked, poking his head over the railing to peer down at her.

Beth wasn’t surprised he knew this. He might not go to Class like the rest of them, but he  _ was _ the world’s greatest detective. She nodded.

“I need some left over wire and a pair of crafting pliers.” Angus explained, turning back to rifle through her things. “Some charms if you have them.”

“Don’t have the charms anymore.” Beth said. “Did you know I’d have the wire because I wasn’t interested in making bracelets?”

“Got it in one, Miss. Minnow” Angus said, and Beth could almost hear the pride in his voice. She had been trying to learn how to deduce things from him since he had introduced himself. He told her often she was very good, but she had a feeling he was being modest. 

“How’d you  _ know _ I didn’t want to make a bracelet?” She asked, crossing her arms and staring up at the bed above hers like she could see through the mattress. “Just ‘cause I never wear them?”

“No, you told me once.” Angus explained. He seemed to have found what he was looking for, as he was now poking his head back over. “I’ll have to make a charm myself. Thank you for the wire and pliers.”

Beth yawned again, unable to stop herself. “You remembered that? I don’t even remember that.” she said, all but ignoring his thank you. Angus worked too hard for her to pretend his need of her things even  _ remotely _ bothered her. 

Angus just shrugged, which nearly toppled him out of bed. It took a lot in Beth to suppress a snort. 

“Would you two  _ shut up _ ?” A small voice groaned. 

For a moment, both kids froze. Then Beth sighed, realizing her roommate had been awoken in the hubbub. “Go back to sleep, Abby, it’s just my boyfriend for cuddles.”

Angus made a face like he wanted to laugh, then pulled himself back up onto the top bunk proper. 

“It’s McDonald, I’m not an idiot, and you  _ know... _ ” Abigail began, but was cut off by the sound of their door behind opened.

Whatever riot act Abigail was about to read was being interrupted by none other than the Night Matron herself, like some sort of neon sign to their bad luck. Beth, instinctively, quickly laid back down and pretended to be asleep, though she had a funny feeling that it wasn’t gonna matter in the end. There was a subtle jostling above her - Angus ducking behind her Garbage Bag and muttering a quick incantation - as the detective tried to hide.

The Night Matron is an older woman, with a stern, no nonsense look about her, graying hair and brown eyes that could kill a man. She’s shorter than Angus is - by a good few inches - but something about her presence always made Beth feel like even  _ he _ was a lot smaller than her. She always ended up feeling like an ant in her gaze, and wondered  _ constantly  _ at how Angus was ever able to stand up to her.

The Night Matron shined her wand, lit up with Light, right at Beth. Beth, to her credit, didn’t flinch enough to give herself away. She just moved a little bit, like the light was bothering her in her sleep. After a second, the light moved.

Abigail hadn’t moved, which meant she was, at the very least, not ratting them out. She probably knew as much as Angus and Beth did that this plan had a zero percent chance of working, but Beth liked to think that Abigail  _ could _ be an ally when push came to shove. It made sleeping in the same room as her a little bit more bearable.

Beth kept her breathing steady as the Matron cross the room, grumbling as she slowly got to her knees and shinned her light under Beth’s bed. Hardly daring to breathe, Beth was able to hear the older woman mutter something under her breath. After a second, when nothing happened, Matron stood back up and shined the light on the upper bunk. She muttered something again, and this time there was a small  _ yip _ as Angus’s invisibility was thrown off.

“Alright, off you get young man,” Matron said, with a stern and loud voice. Beth winced, even though everyone in the room had known Angus would be discovered. “And you two can stop pretending to sleep.”

Angus, able to keep a spring in his movements that Beth was jealous of, slid down the ladder and walked over to Matron.

“Evening, ma’am” He said, as polite and chipper as ever. Beth slowly sat up, even though she knew she couldn’t help him here. Angus had been, basically, stuck in Time Out since his arrival at School, so this was hardly anything new, but the daring way he spoke to authority always made her want to leap in front of him and protect him. 

“That it is,” Matron commented dryly. “Wanna take a guess how late it is? Want to take a  _ jab _ at what the clock could  _ possibly _ look like right now?”

“Hmmm,” Angus said, actually thinking it over. “Maybe around three in the morning? Hard to tell with no windows.” 

Beth glanced at the large landscape portrait that had come with the room. The picture was of a beautiful summer field, supposedly there to help the occupants of the room fight off the depression of not being able to see the outside world. 

“Close,” Matron said. “It’s 2:30am. Turn out your pockets.”

Angus shrugged casually, and Beth watched him pull the pliers out of his sweater pocket. He handed those to Matron, then turned out his other pockets so the flaps were showing.

The wire had disappeared. It was probably in Angus’s hair, if Beth had to take a guess. She had once seen him stuff three sporks and two knives into the short afro he had going on. Of course, he also could’ve stuffed it down his shirt, or in his shoes, or even just in his sleeve. The Night Matron wasn’t super careful, and he got a shocking amount of things past her all the time. He probably only handed back the pliers because he knew she’d be expecting him to have  _ something _ on him.

The Night Matron looked down at Beth, and the girl had to suppress a yelp. 

“Are these  _ yours _ , young lady?” She asked, demandingly.

Beth made herself put on her brave face, putting on a show of examining the pliers.

“Yeah,” she said, hoping her examination act would convince Matron that Angus had broken in and had stolen them, rather than asked politely. There had been only one time where she had fessed up to helping him; following that Angus had told her not to, to lie and say she had nothing to do with him. That nothing he was working on was worth two people going to Time Out for. 

Not that Time Out scared her - it was just being stuck, bored out of your skull, in a room for a few hours. But Angus had pointed out that she was more helpful to him if she flew under the Staff’s radar. 

There weren’t a lot of people here who would help him as riskily as Beth did. He needed her. 

Matron huffed, handing her the pliers. “Put them away,” She commanded, so Beth got up to do that. “And you, Mr. McDonald. Do I need to call David, or can we walk  _ peacefully _ back to Time Out?”

Angus had tried to run once, back when he’d first arrived. The Night Matron had never let it go, mostly because he’d punched her to get away. Maybe that was why Beth liked him so much.

“No need, ma’am.” Angus swore. “I’ll be good.”

The Night Matron narrowed her eyes, grabbing his upper arm anyways.

“Goodnight Miss. Minnow, Miss. Minerva!” Angus called as he was escorted out. The door shut behind the two, and the Matron’s loud footfalls headed off down the hall.

For a second, it was quiet in the room.

“How annoying.” Abigail said. “I doubt I’ll get any sleep  _ now _ ! Gods.”

Beth rolled her eyes, finished putting her pliers away, then climbed back down to her bunk and rolled under her covers. 

She doubted she was going to see Angus at Class tomorrow, but that was hardly surprising. Angus rarely earned the chance to go to a class - he’d been caught stealing too much - but hopefully this wouldn’t be a big enough stunt that he’d have to take meals in the Time Out room. She wanted to know what the wire was for.

“How does he even get  _ out _ ?” Abigail asked, more to herself than to Beth. “Aren’t the Time Out rooms locked?”

Beth yawned and muttered. “Taako is the greatest transmutation wizard in the world, duh.”

“What?” Abigail asked, but Beth was too tired to explain. Instead she just rolled over and went back to sleep.

* * *

Angus McDonald didn’t do a lot of detective work after the Story and Song. A case here and there, sure, but he was more dedicated to his possible teaching career and his wizarding knowledge than detective work. He still did consulting - he was pretty sure there were cases that just wouldn’t get solved at all if he didn’t help them along - but he didn’t lead every investigation he could like the old days.

But, every now and again, a case would come along that’d just be too intriguing or too pressing to pass up. Things Angus  _ knew _ the militia could use the help on. 

And this case? This case took the cake on that aspect.

Missing children, way too many for any level of comfort. Originally the only kids snatched were from wandering peoples, or low income families, but then the culprit seemed to get bolder. They moved onto kidnapping siblings in the same house, catching kids from richer and more secure homes, getting kids during the daylit hours. Kids were being kidnapped from  _ schools _ now, leaving no evidence for the crimes. And, of course, the culprit clearly seemed to know it. Everyone was on high alert, especially in Neverwinter, the main center of the snatchings.

Angus knew an important case when he saw it, and joined on the moment he was asked.

It was then pointed out to him, by a variety of people, that  _ he _ was a child. That, you know, maybe this case was dangerous for him especially, because of that. Literally everyone he talked to had some concern to share about his safety.

Angus had to agree with it all though; absolutely none of it was unfounded. Whenever he went out to gather clues, he went  _ with _ someone. While on the case, he decided to stay with Taako and Kravitz, so that he could still be in Neverwinter but not in a small dorm by himself. He would’ve gone so far as to imply one of his  _ friends _ was actually investigating and not him, but Angus needed to actually  _ see _ crime scenes to get enough from them. 

Still though, it had all felt like enough protection. It was a lot more than he had gotten when he worked freelance, and he had been pretty confident he wasn’t in serious danger. Or, at least, not the kind that couldn’t be prevented as it happened.

And it still hadn’t been enough.

When Angus got kidnapped, he’d been asleep in a house that had been heavily warded, only one room away from a Grim Reaper who could sense souls. The probability that someone could sneak it, not wake him, and then spirit him away without anyone knowing or tripping an alarm? It was so astronomically low Angus hadn’t considered it possible. Frankly, the kind of person who could do get away with this implied a threat level much greater than the average kidnapping. This was being done by a powerful individual. 

Which made School all the more ... frustrating. Frustrating because Angus didn’t get the  _ why _ behind it.

He could  _ kind of _ see the sense of it, on the smaller scheme of things. The strict regulations and rules were easy to follow, a pattern laid out that was rewarding as well as time filling. None of the “students” - read: all the kids Angus had been looking for - were bored. They had stimulation in the form of fun “Classes” and educational venturers, all the while being presented with an environment that implied their personal growth was top priority.

School was also location in the middle of the icy tundra, placed squarely in a plot of space Angus previously thought was uninhabitable. There were no windows in the building, and very few doors, everything carefully sealed up to keep in valuable heat.

When Angus had first run away, he had made it outside, but just outside the doorway was the farthest he got. Even  _ then _ he’d been at serious threat of pneumonia. 

So that was a serious obstacle to overcome. What was worse was it seemed like whatever power his captors had that made them invisible to Kravitz’s ghost vision (as Taako sometimes called it) was still keeping the Reapers from just tracking him down. Angus had no way to broadcast where he was, and he hadn’t been far enough into his case to expect anyone else to figure it out, so he was completely on his own.

Meaning he had to break himself out. If he got far enough away,  _ then _ a Reaper could find him. From there he could lead his family back to School, and all the kids would be saved. Job done, they could go home.

Only ... Angus had been here for two weeks already, and this plan was going to be the long haul verity. He couldn’t help but think of the chaos back home as his family tried to piece together what happened, as the panic in Neverwinter grew when it became apparent that the kidnappers could take  _ anyone  _ they wanted to, if even he wasn’t safe. It made his stomach do stupid little flips, even as he told himself he  _ would _ find an out.

Which probably would be easier if he understood the  _ point _ of this place. Which brought him back to his frustration at this whole mess.

School wasn’t what he had been picturing when he first read about the kidnappings. It all felt ridiculously redundant, the way the kids just when from activities and socials, without the Staff seeming to gain anything at all. Angus didn’t attend enough Classes to properly rule out the theory that School was a way for a cult to brainwash future members, but he had heard enough from the other kids that he felt that theory could be pushed aside for now. 

In fact, from what he can glean from his frustratingly limited position, the only thing all the kids had in common was that they were all Sorcerers. 

Not Angus, of course, he was still a regular old wizard. The Staff had all been very honest about him being taken because of his investigation, so he was the only non-Sorcerer child in the building. And there were 31 children in the building.

He didn’t get that part, at all. What was especially baffling is he hadn’t even known all the children taken were Sorcerers before getting taken himself - somehow their captors had learned things about these kids that even the kids  _ themselves _ hadn’t know. Beth Minnow, for example, had apparently been born a Wild Sorcerer and didn’t know until one of the Teachers told her. 

Which made sense, most Sorcerers didn’t realize they were one until their later teen years or older. This wasn’t something you discovered when you were 12, but usually you  _ were _ the first to know.

Angus didn’t know how their captors knew. He didn’t know what it all signified. He didn’t get the plan here, and all he had to go on was the kids’ magic type. 

Which, admittedly, was more than he had when he had been home with a notebook  _ full _ of questions and next to no answers. But still, for the world’s greatest detective he felt stupidly lost. 

He did have a few plans for how to glean some answers, if he didn’t break free first. This was, after all, supposed to be a school, meaning there had to be a principal. If Angus could meet them, he could try to press them a bit, maybe learn a thing or two. Of course, you only saw the principal if one of two things happened; 1) you were a good kid and you called a meeting to talk about taking AP classes or whatever, or 2) you were a bad kid and the principal needed to talk to you about your behavior.

Under any other circumstance, Angus would’ve been firmly planted in the first category, and he would’ve been playing it up. People took “good” kids way more seriously than bad ones - the amount of information Angus learned because adults just talked in front of him without any concern was almost embarrassing. This, however, was not a normal circumstance, and Angus had been labeled a troublemaker even before he got there. 

Which ... well it was surreal, for sure. Because for his plan to still work, he had to go with option two and play up the bad kid angle. Which meant he had to think about what “bad kids” did to get themselves sent to the principal's office. 

Angus liked to think he was on the right path, though. He was a lot better at sleight of hand than he once was - thank you Carey - so he went the obvious route and stole a frankly  _ pointless _ amount of things. He got caught a lot, and he always made sure to be frustratingly chipper when the Staff tried to scold him - he’d have to thank Taako for that idea later. He looked at every single rule and tried to think of ways to outright break all of them.

The only thing he refused to do was be mean to another kid. None of them deserved it, after all, and all of them thought he’d get them in trouble as it was. If he was desperate, he might ask Beth to stage a fight with him in the cafeteria, but he wasn’t quite there yet. At this point, seeing the principal would be a happy bonus to his plans. He had a good idea on how he was breaking out. 

He smiled sweetly at the Night Matron when she stopped by his Time Out room. Well, technically it wasn’t his, it was just one of  _ the _ Time Out rooms, but Angus had barely spent any time in his assigned room and spent a  _ lot _ of time in this one.

“Did you lock the door behind you?” The Night Matron asked, twisting the knob. It stuck, very much locked.

“Of course,” Angus said, cheekily. “It’s only polite.”

She sighed and pulled out her keycard. She swiped it through, unlocking and then opening the door for him.

Inside it was a grade A mess. Angus had  _ heard _ of the rule about the IPBBs, he just ignored them. At this point the Night Matron didn’t even flinch. 

“Night,” He said, dancing back towards his bed. She slammed the door when he was just a few steps in, the lock engaging with a solid  _ click _ . 

Angus let his smile drop, sighing to himself as he settled down from his facade. Lights out had been hours upon hours ago, so the room was totally black, but despite his clothes being all over Angus knew every step through the place. He wandered over to the bed and sat down.

The clothes weren’t actually his, so he couldn’t give a shit about them. He had arrived at School in his PJs - a pair covered in little cartoon magnifying glasses, courtesy of Lup - and had been given an entire bag of clothes, the clothes he was stuck with now. He had banned from leaving Time Out until he changed into day clothes, so he lost the PJs from home almost instantly. Nothing he wore now was comfortable or familiar, all of it was uniforms.

Well, not quite uniforms. The were uniform _ like _ , since there was no proper logo or crest on them, but with that kind of sameness that came with uniforms. He had four pairs of slacks - two black and two khaki - five polo shirts - all various shades of navy blue with only small, subtle differences - two pairs of black shoes, two black sweaters, and three black skirts (Angus had thrown a hissy fit, saying how  _ dare _ they assume he didn’t enjoy wearing skirts, and then promptly never touched them). School didn’t provide coats, of course. Not like a coat would help if you wanted to try to march miles in  _ well _ below freezing temperatures, but the point was there. 

That was probably why he was so comfortable leaving the mess all over the floor. Back with his family, with any of them, all of his clothes were folded or hung in a closet, kept in pristine order. Sometimes he caught himself folding something while here, hating how School was messing with his habits. 

The mess  _ did _ serve a double purpose, although, frankly, he could’ve just done it because of his spite. But there  _ was _ a method to his madness; it was a lot harder for someone to find things in the messy room than if it had been clean.

Angus fished the wire he’d gotten from Beth out of his hair, swearing softly as the ends caught in the curls. The small puff of hair was shockingly good for smuggling things, to the point where his instinct had slowly morphed into him just ... shoving things in his hair. One day he was going to do it at home and Taako was never going to let him live it down, but for now it was way too handy of a trick. There were Staff members who would have him take off his shoes and sweater, but they never felt through his hair.

Once the wire was free, Angus found the lone shoe that was “lost” under the pile of pants and tucked halfway under the bed. He carefully re-rolled the wire into a tighter coil, then pushed it into the toe of the shoe. With the pile reassembled, wire so hidden it was ridiculous, he yawned and changed into the shorts and tank top combo School  _ insisted _ was proper sleep wear.

It was too late in the night to get much else done, and, really, shaping wire into delicate patterns without pliers was asking for trouble. He’d probably have to wait for a chance to have Beth slip him those, but that was the thing about long haul plans. It took forever to get anything done.

Grumbling aside, there wasn’t much else he could do and Angus was seriously tired. He was going to be rudely waken in just a few short hours for breakfast, and he had to have just enough sleep under his belt not to do something  _ too _ extreme.

He slid under the covers, wishing, like he did every night, that he was home and could hear the chatting and flirting Kravitz and Taako got up to while they did dishes for the night, then slowly drifted off to sleep.

* * *

 

Kravitz genuinely could not remember another time his family was  _ this _ distressed. It made sense, he himself was extremely distressed, but it was so ... off to see his happy-go-lucky family members with such serious attitudes. 

He had also never seen Taako  _ pace _ before, but now it was more common than not.

The whole family had been in shambles since Angus’s kidnapping. For sure they had all been  _ worried _ about Angus investigating child snatchings, but they had been way  _ more _ worried when Angus was sleeping on his own in a dorm room with a lock that sometimes stuck and didn’t engage. When he had agreed he needed to take safety precautions, when he had moved in with Kravitz and Taako, it had seemed like everything was taken care of. Taako, not that long ago, had been dramatically telling Kravitz he couldn’t  _ wait _ for the stupid case to be over so Angus could stop mooching off their food.

There shouldn’t have been a chance that someone could steal Angus from their home. Not with Taako’s magical traps, not with Kravitz’s senses, not with Angus’s own perception. And yet they simply woke up one morning to an empty bed and one missing pair of PJs. 

Somehow, some  _ fucking _ way, someone had kidnapped their boy. 

“Whoever did it,” Taako pointed out. “They had to have had some  _ serious _ spell levels. No one gets into this house past all my shit without being able to burn through a  _ lot _ of slots.”

“Not to mention sneaking past Death here,” Lup pointed out. “So they had to have done something sneaky to make themselves invisible.”

“They would’ve had to have knocked Angus out, too.” Taako bounced back. “No way that kids stupid enough not to scream his head off, right?”

“So we’re looking for someone with the slots to burn, and probably a lot of non-magical ingenuity to boot.” Lup nodded knowingly.

There aren’t, actually, a lot of highly powered magic users in the world. Taako and Lup were two of them, as well as Barry and Lucretia (Merle too, of course, but that was a different kind of magic and not usually the kind that helped you kidnap kids). Beyond them there were a few handfuls of wizards, sorcerers, some warlocks, and then you had the really magically inclined creatures. Kravitz technically fell into that last category himself, though he could still use bardic magic when he needed or wanted to. This should have been a short list.

Not to say it wasn’t, because it certainly  _ was _ . Angus had written it down himself when he was studying the nature of the kidnapping at the school. He just had ruled out all of them for the school kidnapping, a lot of questions circling the same page. 

“Doesn’t mean anything.” Taako had insisted. “What about the wizarding types who kept in the shadows and just, like, studied all the time? Maybe one of them just fucking snapped.”

Angus had come to a similar conclusion, but there were parts of his notes that just confused the hell out of everyone. He used terminology they had to called Hurley to get an explanation for, as well as a type of shorthand that put even Davenport’s to shame. Sketches and notes blurred together, references made to previous cases none of them had ever  _ heard _ of.

It seemed like,  _ maybe _ , Angus thought the criminal was an older one resurfacing, someone who had kidnapped kids in the past and was never caught. That, or a magically inclined criminal who might have been recently released. Neither of those trains of thoughts went anywhere. 

“OK!” Taako had said. “Doesn’t mean anything! I mean, there had to have been a clue  _ somewhere _ , right? That’s what Ango’s always going on and on about, right? That there’s always some clue?”

The only problem with that was that none of them were detectives, and Angus’s notes showed he hadn’t gotten very far in the case himself. 

The Neverwinter militia also kept trying to swoop in and snag up the case, trying to get every last piece of Angus’s notes for their investigation. They insisted they had it covered, and that they’d bring the lost kids home safely.

Kravitz didn’t believe a word of it. And neither did Taako, given the pacing. And the massive amounts of stress baking, the lack of proper sleep, and the fact that he constantly forgot the Disguise Self spell or makeup. 

The days seemed to slip past them, and no new leads were coming to light.

It was like Angus had just vanished.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Eyy! :D  
> Super stoked about the response this has gotten me, thank you all so much! Chapter two is a bit shorter, due to the fact that pacing is still a mystery to me and there's some exposition I wanted to finish off before getting to the Good Good stuff. I'm thinking this is going to be a bit of a shorter fic? Idk, pacing is a witchcraft I've yet to learn.  
> Still! Got a lot planned :333 Sorry for having Ao3 say that there was only going to be one chapter, 'cause that was a big fat lie xD  
> Thank y'all for being amazing :3

Taako hated pacing. Little known fact about pacing? It requires energy. You’re literally walking around for however long you pace for, physically moving your legs like your traveling places. It gets tiring, like,  _ really _ quickly. He could wear himself out doing this.

So, of course, now he couldn’t get himself to stop. 

It might have been because pacing was one of Angus's nervous tics, and Taako was secretly a sentimental sap. But, to be fair, Angus had enough nervous tics to make any anxious nerd impressed. Taako had no idea how exactly this  _ helped _ the boy wonder, and why, exactly, he was fucking doing it. 

The sound of paper ripping filled the room, making Taako freeze in his place. 

There was no way to teleport into casa de Taako, he had made sure of it, but the Reaper Squad had their own way of getting around that Taako wasn't even sure he  _ could _ block off. So there were only three people in the world who could break into his house without being detected. 

Except there wasn't, 'cause there was actually  _ four _ people in the world and one of them kidnapped his boy. 

Lup stepped out of the portal she had made, giving him one whole sympathetic glance before he pounced on her. 

“Any news? Like, any at all?” He asks, playing with his fingers. He was a fucking mess if  _ this _ was going to be how he reacted to every possible scrap of information coming through. 

Lup shrugged with a sigh. “There's not much we can do from the astral plane that we couldn't do from this one. None of these kids are dying, small comfort.”

Taako all but threw his hands into the air. “But, ya know, torture is still on the table!”

Lup sighed. “Right now, we don't know anything about this” she pointed out. “They could be on fucking vacation!”

The way she flopped onto the couch showed just how much this was taking out of her. Taako could relate - it had been nearly two weeks and they had basically been running around in circles. He flopped on the couch next to her. 

“What was the next pointless lead we were going to chase?” he asked, previous anger already depleted. 

“I think next we should just knock on doors and accuse people. Nothing else is working” Lup said, with just as much exhaustion. 

The astral plane had been one of their final ideas. Looking for any sign of the kids on the far side at least proved if they were dying or not. Logically, Taako knew this was a good sign. Angus was still alive, all of the kids were. It just didn't get them anywhere closer to a  _ location _ , and therefore he hated it. 

“What are the militia dumbasses saying?” Taako asked. 

Lup looked over at him. “Wanna go raise hell at the offices again and find out?”

He didn't, not really. What he wanted was for Angus to be  _ home.  _ He would never mention it out loud, not in a million years, but there was only so much dicking around he could do to distract himself from the feeling. Angus was missing and he was starting to get  _ seriously _ worried. He wanted this whole mess done and over with and beyond them, with Angus  _ home _ .

“I don't wanna get up,” Taako said, instead of all that. 

Lup nodded, like that made sense. For a moment, the twins just lounged around, staring at nothing. 

“How about...?” Lup began, but whatever she was about to ask was interrupted by another sound of tearing paper.

Barry stepped out into the living room, looking  _ excited _ for the first time in a long time. Taako instantly raised his eyebrow at him, curious.

“I think I have a lead!” Barry said, bouncing a bit.

Taako and Lup, simultaneously, sat up.

Barry perched on the edge of one of the armchairs, leaning close to the coffee table. In his hands was a manila folder, packed with loose documents. He looked genuinely jived, like he had something and they could actually  _ do _ something. Barry, out of all of them, hated feeling useless. 

“OK, so you know how Angus thought this might’ve been done by someone who’s already been caught kidnapping?” Barry asked. The twins nodded, gesturing for him to continue on. “Well, kiddo thought that idea had been a dead end. But I went over some of his notes from the interviews with the families, right? And one of the mothers had actually caught sight of something, actually got a look at a masked face just before her kid went missing.”

“OK, what does that ...?” Lup began, but Barry bounced a little bit in his seat. With a small smile, Lup gestured for him to continue.

“The  _ mask _ came up in a different case.” Barry explained. “A robbery, specifically. Get this, the culprit snuck in and out with absolutely  _ no _ evidence left behind. The only thing the militia had to go on was an eyewitness describing an androgynous figure in this mask. Case went cold.”

Taako raised an eyebrow. “OK? How are they related?”

Barry’s excitement seemed to taper off there as he shrugged. “I’m not entirely sure, bearing the mask, I won’t lie there. But! Given  _ what _ was stolen, we might be able to find something more about our kidnapper.”

He quickly opened up the folder, fishing out a copy of the list. Both twins scooted together, almost out of instinct, reading it over. Lup let out a low whistle. 

“Damn, I almost feel bad for Lucas all of a sudden.” Taako said, completely joking. “All this tech shit, disappearing from a major Miller lab? I’m not even entirely sure what all these machines  _ do _ , but I bet they’re not small.”

“Expensive stuff, right here.” Lup agreed. 

Some of it  _ did _ ring a bell for Taako; he had been a scientist once, after all. The stuff he did recognize, though, didn’t leave a lasting impression. If anything, he was all the more confused. Why did this asshat need machines to track trace levels of arcanic particles? Or high powered microscopes? Some of this list had been stuff in Barry’s nerd lab on the Starblaster, and most of it had been used to document entire ecosystems and planet life. This wasn’t the kind of stuff an average joe would know what to do with. 

“So you think these  _ are _ related, this isn’t just some crazy happenstance? This robbery and the kidnappings  _ are _ done by the same dude?” Taako asked. 

Barry shrugs. “We’re talking about a pretty detailed mask, I can show you a drawing if you want.” He explained “I seriously think that if we figure out where the masked guy went, we might get a clue as to where the masked  _ kidnapper _ went.”

“OK, but was I the  _ only _ one paying attention when you said that case had no evidence?” Taako asked, feeling frustrated all over again. 

Lup shook her head. “No, but stuff like this?” She gestured to the paper. “This stuff takes a  _ lot _ of power.”

Barry nodded. “Maybe we can, er,  _ convince _ Miller to find places that are using a lot of power, maybe see if he has any way of being able to tell if it’s his stuff too.”

Taako shrugged. “That one’s fair. Good job Lup, saved your hubby’s ass from being totally useless.”

Barry gave him a glare while Lup snorted.

“OK, but like ...” Lup said, trailing off as she looked the list over again. “This is giving me a weird ... like, experimentation vibe. When was the last time we used particle detectors, Bar?”

“When we were looking for the Light, actually.” He said. “The Light gave off a very specific arcane signature.”

Lup frowned, thinking hard. Taako had no idea what she was getting at, not really, but just seeing her like this made him nervous. He didn’t like it when he didn’t know what was going on.

“I feel like we used it for something else too,” She said after a moment, making Barry put on his thinking face too. 

“You nerds think on it while we’re on the way to Lucas’s shitshow of a school.” Taako said, cutting them off. “We need to see if this all actually gets us anywhere.”

The two Reapers nodded.

 

* * *

Angus wasn’t in Class, go figure. He spent most of the day in Time Out, in fact, since he couldn’t be convinced to get up for breakfast. He only really woke up when Miss. A got him up for lunch, all but pulling him out of bed.

Miss. A was an Elven woman who refused to respond in Elvish, and that was about the only lasting impression the woman had left on Angus. She was mousy, always in the same oversized sweater and ponytail. “Miss. A” clearly wasn’t her real name, but all the Teachers had names like that. Miss. A, Miss. N, Mr. B, all just a title and then a letter. The rest of the Staff employed the same level of anonymity, but mostly the others just used titles - there was the Day and Night Matrons, the Chef, the Nurse, and the Security Officers. In fact, Angus had only ever gotten one first name from any of them, and that was from one security officer named David.

Now out of bed and awake, Angus quickly made his way down to the cafeteria, clutching the strap of his school bag. School’s halls were always busy during the day, a stark contrast to how empty they got at night. Just as many Staff members wandered the halls as students, which wasn’t  _ too  _ surprising since there was only 31 kids and 20 adults. What was equally unsurprising was the careful eyes tracking his progress as he walked. Unsurprising, but still the smallest bit creepy.

Eventually, though, Angus did make his way to the cafeteria, yawning as he joined the lunch line. He was earning stares, but he didn’t pay it any attention; he was wearing the same clothes as yesterday and it showed, with how wrinkled the shirt and pants were, and he also had to be the only one who ever got away with skipping breakfast. He couldn’t really find it in him to care - he was getting too used to the “rebellious” stunts he pulled to find it weird or different now. Now it just felt like business as usual. 

The Chef gave Angus a glare as he served the detective a large bowl of stew and a slice of freshly made bread. Angus gave the half-orc man a cheery smile back, trying not to let it show that the man deeply intimidated him. If he wasn’t convinced that Chef had it out for him, he would have assumed the glaring stare was just a resting face his fangs couldn’t help but give him. But he happened to know that Chef  _ did _ have it out for him, and kind of for good reason. Angus had once tried to give him loud cooking “pointers” he had learned from Taako, and Chef had never gotten over it.

Angus snagged his tray and pulled away from the serving window quickly, letting Chef get back to his job. He was too tired to try any more cooking related shenanigans, and he was never as good at it as Taako anyways. He quickly scanned the cafeteria, finding Beth in the sea of navy blue shirts and quickly heading over. She had snagged the table he had all but claimed in his first few days at School, a few books propped up around her as she talked to a dwarven kid across the table from her.

Angus would never admit it, but meeting Beth had been a massive boon since this whole mess had begun. Not only was she just as interested in detecting as he was, she was also a really caring person and actually willing to help him try his escape plans. And, honestly, she was just a really kind person, and at 13 she was probably one of the few friends Angus had in the same age range. 

Beth gave him a  _ look _ as he settled in. Aaron, the dwarven boy, looked a little annoyed at having their conversation invaded, but didn’t seem too willing to say anything about it.

“Morning, sleep head.” Beth said, looking him over. “Did you crawl into a pit or something?”

“Har, har.” Angus said back, in the same joking tone. 

“Well, you missed Elvish and Math,” Beth explained, reaching over for her school bag. “I snagged you some notes, though, if you’re interested.” 

All the “students” at School had the same shoulder bag for carrying notes around - also called the School Tote. Angus was wearing his today, despite the fact that it was basically empty and he all but never went to Class.

He had been kind of  _ hoping _ Beth would be on the same wavelength as he was, but he was still caught off guard enough that he almost chuckled. She was a quick thinker, Beth Minnow.

“Well, I have absolutely no idea when I’ll be in Class next, but sure.” Angus said, smiling at her.

“You should keep up your studies and maybe, I don’t know, listen to the Teachers. Maybe then they’ll let you back in.” Beth joked, fishing out an envelope from her bag.

It was crammed pretty full; Beth never really had an organization system to begin with, but she had probably also stuffed some extra papers into the folder just to be safe. When Angus grabbed it, he could feel how off the weight was.  
The security officers were all stationed at the doors, and their table was easily the hardest to notice. That had been one of the reasons he had started sitting in this back corner in the first place, carefully making sure that the more crowded tables were always between him and them. In the noise and with this distance, there was no way any of them could overhear his conversations.

Or notice it when Beth slipped him a pair of crafting pliers in the pocket of a folder.

“You’re awesome, Beth.” Angus told her honestly, stuffing the folder into his own bag. 

“Yeah, yeah, just give me the folder back by dinner.” She said.

Angus could’ve honestly just slipped the pliers into his bag and given her the folder  _ now _ , but that would look suspicious and he wasn’t an idiot. He just promised her he would, hoping she wasn’t giving him some actually important stuff she’d need soon. 

“What did you get for those practice problems?” Aaron asked, joining the conversation. “Algebra makes, like, no sense.”

Hearing that, Angus was actually glad he  _ didn’t _ go to Class. He’d be bored out of his mind if he was being taught algebra again. At Lucas’s school, he was onto calculus and theoretical arcana, and worked as the teacher’s assistant for the Basic Casting class. Though, considering School’s creepy “learning is cool” environment, they might have found something else to try to get him to study. 

Beth went over her answers while he ate. It was almost odd to watch them, considering under any other circumstance these two people would’ve never met. 30 Sorcerer kids, all in one room, just chatting away, kept being ridiculously surreal to him. Aaron was starting to grow scales as he got better control over his magic, and every now and again flowers just sprouted out of Beth's fingertips, both signs of their rampant magic that had quickly become the norm. 

Altogether there were 16 kids with draconic heritage, 6 who drew power from various elemental planes, 5 Wild Sorcerers, and 3 Sorcerers who got power from the Shadowfell. That was a  _ lot _ of variety, especially considering a lot of that was of the rarer side of Sorcery.

Not to say Sorcerers, in general,  _ weren’t _ rare. They very much were. Finding 30 in a room all at once was insane on its own. This many different kinds? Extra rare.

Though, to be fair, after the Story and Song Sorcerers  _ had _ gotten to be the smallest bit more common. Big magical events did that to the worlds - all of a sudden developing kids awoke magical parts of their heritage, or just hung around magical hotspots too long. Originally Angus had figured School was sitting  _ on _ a magical hotspot, and the kids were all  _ becoming _ Sorcerers, but if that was the case than he would’ve felt it too (which probably would’ve pissed Taako off a  _ lot _ , since Taako thought Sorcerers were reckless kids born lucky. If Angus  _ had _ become one, it probably would’ve turned into something of a joke in the family.)

He didn't know how Staff knew where to find Sorcerers, or why they needed them. But the fact that this place was basically teaming with magical energy had to signify something. Some sort of spell, or perhaps they were trying to use the magic as a type of power. Maybe there was even some kind of experiment going on behind the scenes, though Angus had never heard of a kid getting pulled aside, and that kind of thing would’ve spread quickly as a rumor. 

“And there you go!” Beth finished, looking pleased. Angus tuned back into their conversation, in time to see Aaron looked more lost than ever. 

“I'm getting a snack,” he said, with a defeated sigh. “Maybe then my brain will work.”

The Dwarven kid slid out of his seat and walked off, back to Chef's service window. The line was gone now, but every now and again someone got up and went up for seconds or a small snack. Desert wasn't until dinner, otherwise the second line of the hour would've already started. 

“Hey, Angus” Beth said, her voice a touch lower. Angus looked over and her and raised an eyebrow.

She looked like someone seriously lost in thought, which wasn't that abnormal. Angus and her had both been thinking over this mess, the two of them wanting  _ out _ just as badly as the other. Since she actually got to go to Class and had the chance to overhear things he could not, Angus trusted her judgment on things a lot more than some of the other case partners he had had. 

“What are you thinking about?” Angus asked. 

“So, OK, this might be a bit out there, and it probably doesn't help you any,” Beth began, sounding unsure. “But...you ever noticed how we all have families? Like, all of us here.”

Angus looked around the room, then back at her in confusion. “You are all Sorcerers though, not like there's a lot of you in the world.”

Beth waved a hand. “OK, but hear me out. My mom works with the local orphanage, she's one of the teachers at the public school near it. I go to school there, right? So, like, I'm around a lot of these orphanage kids.” She gestured to herself, a few purple sparkles gathered over her palm. “And this only made sense in hindsight, but growing up I had a lot of, like,  _ quirks _ and things that my magic did. Small stuff, I never really thought about it till now, even. But, thinking back, I wasn't the only one with it. A good few kids had a couple of similar quirks - heck, we used to joke about it sometimes, laughing at some of the weird things we'd seen happen. I'm pretty sure there a few other kids in the orphanage who are Sorcerers too.”

She gestured around the room. “None of them are here. And, like, not to bash on the orphanage but you'd  _ think _ taking a kid from there would be easier than how they got Chelsea.”

Angus frown, hard. Chelsea had been snatched when she was going from one building in her middle school to another, crossing through the quad. Dozens of teachers had been watching, the quad was surrounded on all sides by the building's wings, and yet Chelsea had still just gone missing. Hearing the story from her hadn't really solved anything about it, either. She had just said she had been walking normally one second, and the next she was laying down on a bed in School. 

So Beth had a point there - a kidnapper who could do that could  _ certainly _ get away with creeping through an orphanage. 

“Even you,” Beth continued. “You've got a big ol’ family,  _ I've  _ got a big ol’ family, everyone here has a family that's missing them and going nuts with worry. It just ...sounds weird to me.”

Angus chewed on his thumb nail, thinking hard. “Perhaps they do it for the stunt of it? I mean, there was no  _ need  _ to pick up Chelsea from her school, right? They did it to show they could? Get people to panic?”

“Maybe” Beth said. Neither kid sounded satisfied with that idea.

“OK!” Aaron said, plopping down an apple and a carton of milk. “Give it to me again, I think I got it this time”

 

* * *

Beth plum forgot to ask Angus what the wire was for. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did you guys know there's, like, a million different kinds of sorcerers? I wanna play a sorcerer now.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not as cleanly edited as I would like, but considering my up coming work schedule I wanted to post a chapter before my real life got hectic ^^  
> I've been loving this! You all have been super awesome and supportive and make this a truly amazing story! I don't think this'll be super long, I don't really want to stretch my abilities too far and end up not finishing this, but I'm still not entirely sure how long this'll be exactly. We'll see! ^^

The wire was for Angus’s ticket out. 

There wasn’t a whole  _ lot _ of light shining under the door, but when he had was enough. He carefully pinched the wire under the sharp point of the pliers, bending it into a hairpin turn. 

If he wasn’t kidding himself, he was a little worried he wouldn’t have enough wire. The last time he made something like this, he had had a  _ lot _ of it, as well as a whole lot of other equipment.

But, he didn’t necessarily  _ need _ all of that. That much he knew, because he had been told all he really needed was a lot of energy and the ability to put that energy into  _ something _ .

“Look, boychick.” Taako had said, back when Angus first asked about this kind of thing. “Creating magical items is all well and good, but there’s, like, a lot that goes into it? You can’t just wave a wand at it and hope for the best, you know? It’s tough shit.”

“Magnus did it, sir.” Angus had pointed out.

“Hey!” Magnus cried out, from the living room. “You talking shit D’jango?!”

Angus laughed, turning his attention back to his unamused mentor. 

“Seriously kiddo?” Taako said. “You seriously want to learn how to do this? It’ll probably completely replace regular ol’ magic lesson.”

Angus bounced into place and nodded. “You and Miss. Lup both made your own arcane focuses. I want to be able to do that too, sir.”

At that, Taako had finally relented, but only after Angus promised not to become “a massive nobody like Leon.” Which Angus  _ did _ promise, but only after a strong, near ten minute argument on whether or not Leon was a nobody.

That was all nearly two months ago. He’d never been more thankful for those lessons. 

Angus’s fingers were glowing the smallest amount as he moved the pliers around the wire. He didn’t need anything super fancy, or intricate. He just needed something so he wouldn’t burn all his spell slots during the long hike out of here. Not that he  _ had _ any spells that’d create the effect he was going for, but that was another good thing about magical item crafting; you really only needed a solid  _ idea _ and grasp of magic to make one, and it’d be able to do about anything. Even Magnus was able to do it, though, granted, he had had to use external magical power each time. Point was, making a magical  _ item _ was a little bit easier than casting a series of spells.

The only drawback was it was going to take a  _ lot _ of time. 

“The one guy, shit I forget his name ... but anyways,” Taako had once rambled to a raptly attentive Angus “The guys at the Arcaneum, they always had this, like,  _ method _ to making shit. Some kind of six step plan, or whatever. I think it’s like, pre-plan, resources, re-plan, design, create, spell. Something like that. Point is it’s stupid. Well, sometimes it’s stupid. See, I’m not making any sense, this is just something chaboy does, it’s not like cooking or magic, I can’t give you the step by step here bubbeleh.”

“I think I’m getting it though, sir!” Angus had insisted. “Whatever you can remember should work!”

Taako had sighed. “Ok, well, like, first you gotta think to yourself, ‘what do I need in this situation?’”

Angus, right now in the present, needed something to keep him warm when he went outside. That was his pre-plan; he needed warmth. 

“From there, you then need to find materials.” Taako had continued on. “There’s a  _ looong _ ass list of metals and materials that are more conductive or less conductive of arcanic energy, but I’ll spare you the details on that for today and we can talk about it later.”

Angus hadn’t been sure craft wire would work for this, but he didn’t have a whole lot of anything else he could try. So far none of the magic had rebounded on him, but he might not have stuffed the wire with enough energy yet. That would just have to be a problem for future him. Right now he just had to hope and pray.

“And then you gotta plan, again.” Taako continued to explain, watching as Angus had written everything down as exactly as he could. “See, now that you have your shit you might realize your pre-plan is stupid. This is kind of were I call bull, since why would you detail out that much fucking shit in a  _ pre _ -plan, but hey I ain’t an idiot like some. So this is really the part where you got to think out your steps, analyze your resources, and decide  _ how _ this is gonna look, you get me?”

Angus wasn’t going for anything fancy. He was just going to make two charms, each like little flames with a spiral in the middle. On the edge of the “flame” he was going to bend more wire to make a loop, so the object could be worn as a ring. An impromptu Ring of Warmth. Which should make this easier to craft, since that was a object that already existed somewhere, and he was just mimicking its properties in his own creation.

“And then you get the design, create, and spell steps, which are also kinda bullshit.” Taako had said, and current Angus had to agree with him. “If you’re making a fancy, over the top, powerful as  _ hell _ enchanted something-or-other, then yeah you might want to take a long time and make it super pretty. You just ... like,  _ need _ something? You can spell  _ as _ you work. Saves you a lot of time in the long run, though your item isn’t gonna look the most aesthetic. You feel me, pumpkin?”

Angus certainly got it now. He was only about halfway through his first ring and he could tell it wasn’t going to be pretty. He didn’t focus on that, though, because it didn’t need to be pretty. It needed to be warm. 

It was also going to test his patience, by the extreme. Hopefully Beth didn’t need her pliers any time soon.

* * *

“Look, I don’t know what to tell you ...”

“Something better than the  _ shit _ you’ve been spewing Lucas!”

“It’s just not possible!” The small, weak form of the exasperated scientist looked even more stressed out than normal as the twins hounded on him. “I can’t just look at some spreadsheet or whatever and go, ‘yep there’s the thousands of gold in machinery that went missing months ago, right there. Huh, wonder why I never noticed it before?’!”

Lup sighed. “OK, but have you, like,  _ tried _ before?” She asked.

Lucas gave her a stink eye. “That was the first thing the militia and I tried, yes. We even kept looking into the energy inputs citywide to see if we could find anything, but no one’s tried tapping in to the local power grid with these machines yet.”

“This robbery took place just a few months before the first kidnappings.” Barry pointed out, looking up from the file he was occasionally glancing through. “Why did the case go cold so fast?”

Lucas shrugged, with a sigh. “There wasn’t enough evidence. The militia said they’d just ‘put it on the backburner’. Kept telling me something about how that outrageous mask would show up again and  _ then _ they’d get the bad guy. And now there’s the kidnappings.” 

Lup, Barry, and Taako all exchanged looks.

“How easy is it to set up your own power generator for these machines?” Lup asked.

Lucas thought it over. “I mean, you could do it, but it’d kinda depend on where you are. Someplace with a lot of sunlight, you might get it in solar energy, but you’d need a lot of space for battery storage if you wanted to work into the night. I’d personally use wind energy, but we’d notice if an unknown wind turbine popped up outta nowhere.”

“So your saying there’s no cheeky way someone could have rigged these bad boys up?” Taako asked.

Lucas shrugged. “If they have, like, an arcane core  _ maybe _ . Generators take up space, though, so you’re looking for someone with a  _ large _ , somehow unnoticed base.”

“But if it’s just a matter of space, then this ‘base’ could be built anywhere.” Barry said, thinking it over. “Unground, on the ocean, in some desert somewhere... we’re really only assuming the culprit is still in the country because transporting someone unseen a long distance is tricky.”

“And most of the kidnappings are happening in and around Neverwinter.” Lup added.

Barry nodded. “But they really could be anywhere. If they  _ are _ in the area, they’d have to be in a really sneaky spot.”

Taako sighed. “We’re still assuming the missing machines and the kidnappings are related.” He pointed out. He wanted to leave, see if Kravitz had anything new.

Lup groaned.

“I don’t know what to tell you guys.” Lucas said, seemingly honestly. “I could ask around a bit? Maybe another engineer can do something more for you?” 

“We’d appreciate it” Barry said, the other two already halfway out the door. 

“Can’t believe we’re back to square fucking one.” Taako complained. 

“Well, we  _ did _ learn something.” Lup countered. “Our kidnapper is a creepy, creepy nerd.”

Taako wanted to scream. Or maybe punch something, which would definitely suck more for him than it would for whatever he was punching. This wasn’t doing them any good. He wanted to get to the whole “blasting down doors” bit. Have Angus run up to him with that stupidly cheesy grin, saying how proud he was that they solved the mystery.

Fuck it, if Ango could just bust himself out so they didn’t go fucking stir crazy, that’d be great too. Kid had  _ magic powers _ , and was, like, a genius or something. The longer this all took, the more Taako would have to tease him for not breaking out sooner.

“Any other  _ greeeat _ leads?” Taako asked Barry.

“Not particularly, but we’re supposed to meet up with Lucretia on the moon. She might have something for us.” Barry explained.

“Oh good, ‘cause the last four meetings got us so far.”

Taako still didn’t like Lucretia, but it wasn’t beneath him to work with people who were self righteous dicks when the cause was important enough. He didn’t have to forgive her to get her to help him find their boy, and, honestly, if he didn’t talk to her he’d just be hurting both of them. They  _ both _ wanted Angus back, keeping spiteful silence going was only going to keep that from happening.

That said, her Not-Seekers hadn’t come up with anything they couldn’t have found out on their own, and as unfair as it was that pissed Taako off. 

Lup shrugged. “Hey, maybe someone else will have a better idea about this whole mask dealy.”

“Fair point,” Taako said, though it was hard to get his hopes up on that. “Fucking fine. How we getting there? Avi still shooting people from canons, or are we just gonna take the Reaper Express?”

Lup grinned as she summoned her scythe. “Choo choo motherfuckers.”

 

* * *

Magnus wasn’t much of a coffee drinker. This surprised a lot of people, considering he was built like a brick shithouse and some stereotypes get started for a reason. Not to say Magnus  _ didn’t _ have some of the burly man stereotypes, he just also broke a good few of them. The painted nails and jasmine tea was a near stark contrast to the armor.

Not that he had drunk a lot of tea, but neither had his companion. It was more likely that she had poured it just to do something with her hands than out of hosting obligations.

“I’m sorry to bring all this up.” He said, as honestly as he could. He  _ was _ sorry. Everything about this situation was hard, on a lot of people. 

The woman, Agatha, waved a hand. “If it gets her home, how can I say no?” She insisted. “I just ... there’s just not a whole lot I can tell you.”

Magnus nodded. “I’m just trying to see if there’s something in these stories that we can follow.” He explained. “Any detail you can think of, no matter how ridiculous or mundane.” 

Agatha Minnow sighed, shifting in her seat as she thought. “Beth, my middle child, disappeared about four weeks ago.” She explained, even though both people in the room knew this. “The night it happened, I had caught her reading in her room rather than going to sleep. She had one of those little toy wands that only cast Light, and had hidden under the covers. Honestly, it was adorable, but I took the wand and reminded her that she had school in the morning. She was actually pretty out of it by then, she even wanted me to tuck her in for her. I kissed her goodnight and ... and that was the last time I saw my daughter.”

Magnus nodded slowly, in sympathy. He could hear Taako’s words too.  _ “I don’t fucking know man!” _ The panicked elf had shouted into the Stone of Farspeech, the morning after Angus had been snatched.  _ “Last night it was all fine and fucking dandy, and now he’s just fucking gone!” _

“Do you remember what time this was?” He asked.

“About 11:30.” Agatha explained. “I had checked the clock when I caught sight of light under her door. I probably left her room before 11:45” 

Magnus nodded again; this had all been in the report Agatha had filed with the militia. He was really only asking because he felt like he  _ needed _ to hear it himself.

He had been doing this with all the parents. Seeking them out, asking if they could talk, seeing if there was a chance there was a clue in their stories. So far, the only one with anything had been the one mother who had seen a masked figure. Magnus had passed that information on to Barry, and then had just continued on.

There were 31 missing children. That was a lot of stories to gather, and it took a bit of time. But, even so, Magnus was almost done. Almost done and with no more clues.

Agatha shrugged. “After that, nothing. The militia tried to set up a watch on our house, because of my other two children, but they’re stretched too thin. In any case, bearing the two siblings taken together, none of the other houses have had the kidnapper return.” She took a small, stuttering breath. “I ... I don’t ... I really don’t have anything for you.”

Magnus reached a hand over the coffee table and sat it down on the far side, closer to her. He smiled a bit, hoping the sympathy came through, and grinned a little bit more when she placed her hand on his.

“I know,” He said. “It’s ... this shit’s been hard, I getcha.”

Agatha wasn’t crying, but it looked like she wanted to. She just nodded. “Did you have ... um, any other questions?”

Magnus looked her over for a moment, then nodded slowly. “Just one last one. Did you happen to see a figure in a mask hanging around your house at all? Any time before the kidnapping, or after?”

Agatha frowned, shaking her head almost without thinking. “What kind of mask?” She asked.

Magnus pulled away from her hand so he could pull out the drawing. Some sketch artist at the militia had done the drawing justice - the mother who had actually seen the masked figure had said it was of perfect likeness. It had a metallic-like shine to it, covering the entire face with only two eye holes poked through. It was a completely black mask, save for the odd silver lines snaking through. The design gave it the appearance it had, at one point, been shattered, and then repaired. It had the eerie effect of implying the mask broke when someone took something to the dead of their forehead.

Agatha Minnow frowned when she looked at the drawing. “I mean ... I’ve seen a very similar mask before, but ...”

Magnus perked up. “You have? When?”

She shook her head. “At the museum.” She explained. “Beth and I went there just before ... anyways, they have a new exhibit there, something like ‘Lost to History’ or whatever, with all these pieces on display from the Relic Wars.” She shrugged, occasionally glancing over the drawing. “The mask used to belong to some general, some guy who had held onto the Oculus a long time. It had the markings centered around the left eye though. Story was someone tried to break the mask to steal the Oculus from them, but they fought them off. Something like, the lines meaning the general couldn’t be toppled or whatever.”

She shook her head. “This one has the same design, but it can’t be the same.”

Magnus nodded slowly. “No, but it could mean something anyways.” he said, standing quickly. “Thank you so much for your time. And the tea, jasmine’s my favorite.”

Agatha blinked up at him. “You think it might be a clue?”

“I think it’s more of a clue than anything else we got recently.” Magnus grinned at her. “Just you wait, we’ll get them home.”

The mother blinked at him a couple of times, then smiled gently. “You know, Mr. Burnsides.” She said. “When you say it, it honestly sounds true.”

 

* * *

The Bureau of Benevolence operated, mostly, in a large office building in downtown Neverwinter. True to the aesthetic, the tall building was topped with a lovely dome - behind which was an elegant rooftop garden, the place visited and cared for by workers when they got stressed with paperwork - and is all but completely made of glass. Lucas, as a favor to Lucretia, had installed one of the fastest elevators in the world, which had a ride so smooth you hardly noticed the several stories of travel until your ears popped.

The building needed to be tall, a lot when on behind the Bureau’s walls. When people talked about the rebuilding effort, the Bureau was always somewhere within their conversation. There didn’t seem to be a task the Bureau  _ didn’t _ do, all specifically geared towards the betterment of the world.

The moon, however, still operated as a base of operations. When Lucretia wanted to slide past reporters, she usually went to the base and did her work over her Stone of Farspeech. A few people were even still housed on the moon, such as resident engineering genius Avi.

Said genius was swearing profusely when Lucretia walked in. She, honestly, was almost impressed. It was a very colorful string of phrases.

“Oh, um, hello Madam Director.” Avi said, a bit sheepishly. He had tools practically  _ sprawled _ over one of the old training gyms - one that probably hadn’t been seeing any use otherwise - and a half put together machine that looked like it was going to break apart any second. Lucretia could wager a guess that the machine was the cause of his stress.

“Lucretia is fine, Avi.” She said, for possibly the millionth time since the near end of the world. “Director is my title.” She gave him a grin. After spending so long building a wall of professionality between her and the other members of the Bureau, she had to expect them to get surprised every time she showed a of her personal side. It was certainly the change. 

“What are you working on?” She asked, gesturing to the mess. She didn’t really mind Avi’s experimentations - it might’ve been Maureen who made the original canons that brought people to and from the moon base, but it was Avi who had perfected the design and made it anywhere close to a comfortable ride. Even Lucas had nothing but nice things to say to Avi, and Lucas didn’t have a nice thing to say about most anyone.

Avi sighed. “Um ... lame shit.” He said, voice full of lackluster.

Lucretia raised one eyebrow, pointedly.

“OK, I was trying out different methods of making tracking devices.” He said, caving. “At first I thought I’d try to aim for tracing soul signatures, but Kravitz just, like, does that apparently? And that’s clearly not working, so then I thought I’d trace magic signatures but that furthest range I could get was, like, ten feet and even then it doesn’t always work. So now I’m thinking maybe some kind of mixture of the two, but go figure trying to just cram two ideas together isn’t really working out.”

Avi huffed. He had massive bags under his eyes, and Lucretia had to wonder when he last slept.

“Avi,” She said. “Avi, it’s OK. We’re going to find them.”

He sighed, running a hand through his hair. 

Lucretia hadn’t expected the near outcry the had occured when the Bureau learned of Angus’s kidnapping. Though, in hindsight, she probably should have. Many of the members on the base had treated him like a younger sibling: with the occasional goofs and laughs but mostly in the gifts they practically  _ poured _ over the kid. He had been a big hit with the other Seekers, earning nothing but praise from that entire department. He was intelligent, friendly, and genuinely just a good kid. So when he went missing, a lot of people, all at once, grew loudly distressed.

Avi, clearly, was one of them. 

“Maybe you should take a break.” Lucretia continued. “Come back to it when you've slept some?” 

Avi groaned, reaching for his hip flask. Under more normal circumstances, the engineer didn't drink on the job, or, probably more accurately, didn't drink when Lucretia was around. Times were tough, though, and she could hardly fault him.

“Madam Director, no offense, but I think I wanna just drown my sorrows in over-work and cheap booze” he said. 

“Healthy” she commented dryly. “You know, technically I  _ am _ still your boss. Do you need to see Brad's 'Overworked isn't cool’ seminar again?”

Avi snorted so hard he almost lost his grip on his flask. “Does Brad even still work here?”

“He does,” Lucretia said. “He's a social worker now. Apparently doing very well, but I'm sure he'd come back for a seminar or two if I asked him.”

Avi shook his head. “I'll go to bed if I can join the meeting.” He bartered.

Lucretia chuckled lightly, gesturing to the door of the training room. “Avi, you don't need to ask.” She said, leading the way.

He shrugged. “Wasn't, uh, wasn't really too sure on that, not gonna lie.” He admitted. “Taako's boyfriend always looks like he's gonna stab me”

She laughed. “Kravitz is only intimidating for about five seconds. He’s really a massive dork, you'll get along fine.”

“I resent the implication, ma'am” 

Lucretia was still giggling when they made it to the cafeteria.

The moonbase was equipped with a few conference rooms, but Lucretia, personally, hated using them. They never seemed as inviting as she would like them to be, and after hearing Merle’s stories about parly with John, she didn’t really care too much for the environment. Still, until Story and Song, Lucretia had conducting most of her business out of those rooms. Moving to the cafeteria when talking with her family was a very, very welcome change.

Merle and Magnus had both already arrived - how, Lucretia wasn’t entirely sure, but she didn’t care enough to ask.

“Avi!” Magnus said, going in for the high five. “You look like shit bro!”

Avi laughed, the two of them heading off to one end of the table to chat.

Merle gave Lucretia one of his patented patient smiles, patting the chair next to him. “Pop a squat, boss lady.” He said.

“I’m really not your boss anymore, Earl Merle.” She commented, but sat down anyways. 

Merle shrugged, non-committedly.

Lucretia studied his face. He didn’t seem any different than normal, but with the kidnappings going on he had put the Adventures on pause, spending even more time with his kids in sight than normal. Lucretia had even heard that his ex-wife had spent last week at his house, clearly the two of them both deciding it might be safer for the kids to be with him, a seasoned adventurer. She could only imagine how much Angus’s kidnapping was getting to him, in only the fact that it had been doable. 

“How are you holding up?” She asked him. “I mean, are you, like scared at all?” 

“Well,” Merle said, scratching his chin. “Yeah, I am, not gonna lie. This shit kinda freaks me out. But my neck of the woods hasn’t been hit at all, so we’re probably in the green. I brought Mavis and Mookie with me though, just to be on the safe side. Carey’s showing them around.”

Lucretia blinked a bit. “Are her and Killian both here?” She asked.

“Oh yeah, met them on the way up.” Merle explained. “Hey I didn’t know Leon still worked here, thought we scared him off.”

While Lucretia went on to explain that Leon had suddenly felt safer _ on  _ the moon when he learned Taako was leaving it, the others started pouring in. Kravitz arrived a bit before Taako, Lup, and Barry, and Carey, Killian, and Merle’s kids wandered in only a bit later.

“Hey Mavis,” Merle said, turning to his step daughter. “Why don’t you take Mookie into the kitchen and get some snacks? Talk in here’s going to get serious.”

Mavis smiled and nodded, and soon it was just the adults.

“OK!” Taako said. “So, Barry found some shit.”

Barry nodded. “So, Magnus, the mask you mentioned? Turns out it was used in a robbery. Stole a bunch of high end equipment from Miller Labs. Lucas can’t give us any more information other than what we know, but this was all done a few months before the first kidnapping.”

“Weird!” Magnus said. “‘Cause I learned some shit about the mask too. Apparently it’s based off one from the Relic Wars.”

Lucretia sat up a bit more. If there’s anyone in the world who knows everything about the Relic Wars, it’s her. 

“Wait, mask in the Relic Wars?” She asks. “I think I know of that one. A general with the Oculus?”

Magnus nodded. “You know anything more than that?”

Lucretia makes a face. “I mean, there’s not a whole lot to that one. The general kept their identity hidden very thoroughly, and they’re the only person to go on nearly a year using the Oculus before succumbing to the thrall. Honestly, before later evidence, I had assumed they hadn’t had the Oculus at all, and were lying about it to make their power sound more impressive. It was when they created an entire lakes worth of water to drown a small village that it was clearly they  _ did _ have it. They died with the village. Honestly, I didn’t know the mask they wore had been recovered.”

“Well, our kidnapper uses a different one, but clearly inspired by crazy general there.” Magnus explained, passing the drawing to her. She got what he meant by that, easily.

“So what,” Lup pitched in. “Is this old general still alive then? Is that what they’re trying to say? Or are they trying to emulate them?”

Lucretia shook her head. “It definitely won't be the actual general themself, their body was recovered. But this was a piece of a war that isn’t  _ that _ old. Perhaps this is someone related to the general, or friends with them.”

Lup groaned. “Great” She said sarcastically, pretty much summing it all up.

“So, like,” Killian pitched in. “What do we do about this one? Ask around and figure out who made the mask?”

“That’s not a bad idea.” Lucretia agreed. “It would have had to have been someone with serious skill, if this mask is anything like the original.”

There were nods around the table. 

“Maybe there’s still a chance we can find those missing machines,” Lup added. “Avi, you’re, like, really good with shit like that. We could figure something out.”

Avi nodded, looking relieved to be doing something. 

“This kind of tech uses a lot of power.” Barry explained. “Lucas couldn’t find any serious drainage on the local grid, so the kidnappers have to have their generators. We’re looking for a really big base, but depending on how they’re getting the power it could be anywhere.”

It feels like the first time since the investigation began, but the group leaned in together and began to plan.

* * *

Angus McDonald was the world’s greatest detective. He had earned that title after an overly complicated case, one that no one else had been able to crack. Following this half-joking nickname, Angus received enough of a reputation to take on near impossible cases by himself.

But he was, at the end of the day, an eleven year old kid. 

It was going to take him a few days to finish the charms, if he was working only at night, and that was pushing himself to the best of his abilities. If he did it the smart way, he’d pace out nights between working, so he wasn’t dead exhausted the following day, but he wasn’t going to do things the smart way. He was going to do things the impatient way. He wanted to go home.

Which meant he was basically falling asleep at meal times. Beth told him to stop being reckless on a couple of occasions, but he really didn’t pay too much attention to that. When he was back in Time Out, instead of at Classes, he napped. He figured he’d be alright, especially if it meant he could get home quicker.

He probably should’ve paced himself more. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Me: Fuck how do you spell Bureau?  
> Me: -thirteen tries later- awesome  
> Me:  
> Me:  
> Me:  
> Me: ...how the fuck do you spell Benevolence?


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No one @ me, I had to make up some geography for this >.> Tho, in my defense, I'm like preeeeeetty certain Griffin's map doesn't make a whole lot of sense already.  
> Thank you all so much for reading! The responses to this has made me all kinds of happy :333  
> Edit: before I forget again, my Tumblr is also aceface98 :D I don't post a lot of writing updates, but i try to post links to new chapters as I go ^^

Beth woke up to a large  _ bang _ . She rolled over, catching sight of her roommate laying on the ground. 

“Oh gods,” she muttered, sleepily. “Are you OK Abigail?”

“ _ No! _ ”

Beth blinked, realizing, with a start, that her roommate was crying. She rubbed her own eyes free of the sleepiness, then slid out of her bed. 

She didn’t really know what to do here. Sitting on the floor was a crying Abigail, who clearly had just fallen out of her bed and might need medical attention. Did she get help? Did she ask what’s wrong? Did she get an ice pack?  _ Could _ she get an ice pack?

“What’s wrong?” Beth found herself asking, as if the girl hadn’t just fallen over seven feet. “You want me to get the Nurse?”

“I want my  _ Moms _ .” Abigail sobbed. “I want Ma and Mommy and I want my brothers and I want to be  _ home _ ”

Beth froze, because this was not what she was expecting. After a couple of seconds, though, she finally found herself relaxing a bit. She empathized, gods did she empathized. So she slowly sank down next to Abigail, sitting as close as she dared.

“I know.” Beth said, sadly. “Me too.”

For a long time, the two just sat there, Abigail crying her poor eyes out. Beth tried to just ... be a comforting presence, but there wasn’t a whole lot of anything else she could do. When she first woke up in School, she had screamed and cried and hid under her bed. Abigail had told her she was being ridiculous, that having a tantrum didn't change anything, but it now dawned on Beth that she had probably had a similar fit when she first arrived. Abigail had probably gotten so cynical because nothing she had done had made any difference whatsoever.

Gods, School was fucked up. 

When the tears seemed spent, Abigail leaned into Beth a bit more. Beth looked at her, surprised.

“You sure you don’t want the Nurse?” She asked. “You fell out of bed.”

Abigail shook her head, more into Beth’s shoulder than anything else. “I’ve fallen out of bed before, it didn’t really hurt.”

“Well ... ok, if you’re sure...”

Abigail sniffled. “Do you ...” She began. “Do you really think McDonald’s getting out of here?” 

Beth nodded sharply. “I know the Teachers all say he’s just being a troublemaker for the sake of it, but he’s really going to get out! He’s going to get home and get help!”

The younger girl sniffed a bit, staring her up in the face. “Yeah,” Abigail said slowly, finally. “Yeah, I really hope he does.”

“Abby,” Beth said slowly. “We’re getting home. I know we are. I’ll find a way to get you back to your moms myself if I have to.”

The lights flickered. 

It might not have been something noticeable, if it hadn’t been night. If the lights hadn’t been previously  _ off _ . But with the pitch blackness, there was no way either girl missed the light clicking on and then off again.

Neither girl moved for a solid few minutes.

Finally, though, Abigail sniffed and then sighed.

“You better be telling the truth, Beth.” She said, as if trying to sound threatening but only managing to sound desperate. “I’m gonna be seriously mad if it turns out you and McDonald  _ are _ just messing around.”

Beth grinned at her. “It’s just a long haul plan,” She insisted. “Just hang tight, OK? Angus has this.”

Abigail finally gave her a small smile. “Yeah ... yeah OK.” She said, relenting.

After that, the younger girl finally stood, stretching herself out. 

“Go back to sleep, Beth,” She said. “We got Class in the morning and I’m not going to stick around if you don’t wake up with the bell.”

Beth grinned. “Wouldn’t expect anything less.”

* * *

Angus was way too tired for breakfast, but Mr. Zed was a very persuasive person. He was suppose to be getting the invite to go back to Class - and maybe his normal room - that day and Mr. Zed wasn’t about to let him miss it. Angus hadn't been in a Class in a long while, and after Mr. Zed left he started thinking up ways to get kicked out. Preferably quickly, so he could take a nap before getting back to his charms.

Mr. Zed was really supposed to be called Mr. Z, but he spoke with a (not fake) British accent and none of the kids had realized he was giving a  _ letter, _ not a whole name, at first. Mr. Zed didn't seem to mind the confusion, but considering it was basically an alias that didn't surprise Angus. He was otherwise just a normal Teacher, a human man with salt and pepper hair, and kind of a jerk. 

He was also supposed to be Angus's Guide, but both him and Angus had seemed to decide that that was stupid. Which was actually pretty reliving; Guides were assigned to kids to help them “adapt” to School, so Angus would’ve probably gotten into a shouting match if Mr. Zed didn’t let him ignore the Guide rules. Guides were supposed to be the Teacher you went to when you wanted to “talk out your emotions” or “voice concerns.” But, of course, 99% of the time interacting with a Guide was just them convincing their student that since School wasn't  _ all bad _ that it was actually a good place to be. 

Angus knew a thing or two about emotional manipulation. This wasn't his first time in a school setting with Teachers that were, ultimately, just abusive adults in a position of power. He had tested out of high school as quickly as possible for that reason, sick of all the teachers who “knew better” because he was the youngest one in their building. The whole Guide thing irritated him. 

That wasn't all Guides did, admittedly. They also had the specific records of their students, and if you wanted to take a class you went through them to get in. Beth took crafts because she asked her Guide, Miss. A, if she could join.

The Guides were also who you talked to if you wanted to study magic.

Magic wasn’t outright banned in the building; each member of the Staff were fairly advanced magic users and could stop anything before it started. That said, it was against the rules to practice magic anywhere but with a Teacher, who would only let you do so if you were in a magic class. And you only got into magic classes by being a good kid, so Angus didn’t really have a chance. Beth did, though, and she assured him that they had managed to make the class as boring as physically possible. 

Nothing deterred a kid from learning a subject more than making it sound duller than dishwater. Certainly if they had outright banned the class, kids would be finding ways to teach themselves magic. And, considering every kid but Angus was a Sorcerer, that could end in disaster. Better to just convince them to not be interested.

(After hearing that Beth wanted to continue to take magic classes, so she could at least learn _ something _ , Angus had slipped her notes on actually cool spells. She had gotten down a few of the cantrips he knew pretty quickly, and felt pretty confident she could get off a bolt of Magic Missile if she needed to. Boring aside, magic class  _ had  _ taught her how to hold a wand and make magic happen, as well as how to read spells and commit them to memory, so it wasn’t a completely waste). 

The way magic class was laid out had made Angus shelve the idea that the kidnappers wanted a highly trained group of magic users for some nefarious purpose. It felt like he threw away theories just as quickly as he could think them up. Not a good feeling for the world’s greatest detective.

By the time Mr. Zed came back around, Angus was dressed. Not really ready to “face the day”, but dressed.

Mr. Zed shook his head, yet again, as he surveyed Angus’s Time Out room. “You know, Mr. McDonald, if we’re going to be moving you back to your real room, having your stuff properly packed into an IPBB would have saved us a  _ lot _ of time.” 

Angus shrugged. “Guess I’m just a messy person, sir.” 

Mr. Zed raised an eyebrow. Angus’s clothes, despite spending the night on the floor, were perfectly crisp and clean. This was because Angus had learned magic from Taako, and prestidigitation was quickly emphasised as one of the best cantrips to learn, directly under mage hand. The artificial clean had felt weird at first, but Angus would rather deal with that than wrinkled clothes if he could help it, or if he wasn’t feeling especially lazy.

“Sure,” Mr. Zed said, somehow sounding sarcastic and not at the same time. “Well, we should get off to breakfast”

Angus followed the teacher out into the halls. It didn’t escape his notice that this was the first time in a long time he’d been escorted somewhere (while it was daytime, anyways. If he got caught out at night he was always escorted back to his room). He briefly wondered if it was because he was suppose to be back in Class, but this hadn’t happened before. Maybe it was because he had been kicked out so many times? Maybe they were just being extra careful?

The thought flew from Angus’s head when Mr. Zed stopped him outside the cafeteria.

“You wait here.” Mr. Zed said, poking at the doorway. “I’ll grab you a tray. Do you take the regular option, or vegetarian?”

“Um, regular sir.” Angus said. “What’s this about?”

“We’re gonna have breakfast in my office today.” Was all Mr. Zed said, before walking away. He skipped the line entirely, briefling talking to Chef. Chef nodded and dished up a tray.

Angus’s eyes quickly scanned the room. Beth was staring at him, looking between him and Mr. Zed with a question on her face. He shrugged at her, shaking his head to show he didn’t know what was going on either. She made a worried face, so he gave her a grin to show her everything was going to work out.

Beth didn’t need to know that this situation worried him too. That would be completely counterproductive. 

Angus looked up in time to see Mr. Zed carrying him a tray. The older human man passed it to him, then gestured back out into the hallway.

“Shall we, Mr. McDonald?” Mr. Zed asked.

“Yes sir.” Angus said, trying to sound blasé. He was pretty sure he was falling a bit flat - he never did get the finer aspects of lying through one’s teeth - but Mr. Zed didn’t seem to be paying much attention.

Angus drew stares as the two of them walked through the hall. He was the last kid here to be kidnapped, so literally  _ everyone _ in School had been there longer than he had, and even he could tell this wasn’t something that had ever happened before. One kid mouthed “Good luck” as they passed, with an expression that said they were only half joking. Angus smiled back widely, ignoring his turning stomach.

Mr. Zed’s office was a small, “comfortable” style room. There were two arm chairs before a big wooden desk, with motivational posters everywhere. Everything in the room was meticulously placed, even the “haphazard” posters were pinned with aesthetics in mind. It gave Angus a weird impression; the office kind of felt like a cross between Lucretia’s office, which was very “every pen in is order,” and Brad Bradson’s room, which was more “Pull up a bean bag chair and have a cup of tea.” He got the idea that Mr. Zed wasn’t someone who wanted a comfortable office, but had to have one for his position as Guide.

“Have a seat, Mr. McDonald.” Mr. Zed said, gesturing to one of the armchairs.

Angus placed his tray on Mr. Zed’s empty desk, pulling on of the armchairs up to it. He turned back when he realized the teacher wasn’t sitting down with him.

“We’re waiting on a guest.” Mr. Zed explained. “I have to say, Angus. I’m a bit disappointed in you.” 

Angus resisted the urge to roll his eyes. “Oh?” He asked instead.

“Eat your breakfast,” Mr. Zed said. “Once she arrives, the Headmistress would like to talk to you.”

Before Angus could say anything else, Mr. Zed left the room.

* * *

 

Lucretia cleared her throat gently, but Magnus still nearly dropped the duck he was carving.

“Oh gosh,” She said, surprised by his surprise. “Are you OK?”

Magnus chuckled a bit, trying to tell his rapid heart to chill the fuck out. He waved away her concerns. “I’m good, Luce.” He insisted. “Have a seat, I promise not to bite.”

Lucretia didn’t seem to think sitting on Taako’s porch bench was a great idea, given her expression, but she did so anyways. 

Taako and Kravitz were the only ones with a house in Neverwinter, so it was their current base of operations. Kravitz was off with Avi, Barry, and Lup, the group of them looking into possible places someone could draw a massive amount of power from and not get caught. Lucretia had been doing a similar thing, looking for abandoned places that their kidnapper might be operating out of, and Carey and Killian were asking around about the mask. 

Magnus  _ had _ been with them, but he decided to head back to keep Taako company. Taako, during all of this, was a whirlwind of cooking and baking. This wasn’t to say Taako wasn’t good with investigations, because he very much was. But there was only so much asking around you could convince Taako to do before the elf gave up and wandered off. It had been that way on the Starblaster too. Give Taako a map and a rough triangulation of where the Light was and he could set out with little more than some spell casting to get it back. Ask Taako to ask around for signs of the Light and he’d drop the task faster than a hot potato.

Which was fine, in the end. Taako insisted everyone still needed to eat and had wandered home to make dinner. Magnus had come back mostly so Taako would have someone to talk to, but he got kicked out of the kitchen almost as soon as he entered it. And now Lucretia was back.

“Did you ...?” Magnus began, but there a subtle  _ look _ on her face that sort of answers his question. 

“I ...  _ think _ I found something” She explained. 

Magnus raised an eyebrow, putting his knife away. “Don’t keep me in suspense then! What’s up?” He said, his voice peppered with excitement.

Lucretia made a face, a not good, very much not super excited face. “I was looking into old buildings, right? This the kidnappers could have possibly repurposed. And ... there  _ is _ one that kind of fits the parameters that Barry laid out ...” 

Magnus shook his head slowly, lost. “But ...?” He asked, knowing it was coming. 

She huffed, frustrated. “The few buildings I found that would work have a few problems with each of them. Too close to public places, too destroyed, too close to noteable monster inhabitations, stuff like that. But there is one that’s usable, if these kidnappers found a way to heat it.”

Magnus raised an eyebrow. “Heat it?”

Lucretia nodded. “It’s north, in the ice tundra outside of Neverwinter, near the northern point of the Teeth.” 

Magnus lets out a low whistle. “That’s really fucking cold.” He said. “Like, the  _ frost orge _ lives in the southern end of the ice tundra.” 

Lucretia nods. “The original building was for some research on the native wildlife of the surrounding area, but was closed due to the difficulties in heating the place. It took a lot of power, and building it must’ve been a nightmare.”

“You think that the kidnappers are there?”

“I think that if they  _ are _ using a pre-existing building that would be easy to get their hands on, this building is a good fit.” She explained. “It’s already a lab, they could just drop their stolen machinery right in. Still doesn’t explain how they’re getting power, so obviously I can’t say for sure they’re there. But ...”

Magnus nodded. “But it’s worth checking out.”

She smiled gently. “Think we could convince one of the Reapers to go? Or should we start bundling up?”

 

* * *

Angus found it hard to eat after that, go figure. He managed to pick at his toast, his head occasionally craning back to check on the door to the office. Nervous energy filled him to the brim, and he wasn't sure what to do with himself. 

He was waiting about fifteen minutes, before the door opened again. Funny, now that he  _ knew _ someone was there, he almost didn't want to check.

He did so anyways, looking over the back of his chair. Standing at the door was an androgynous figure, with a pair of dress pants and a suit coat, but with a full face mask that included a cowl over the back of their head. Their back was to Angus as they dismissed Mr. Zed, and even their voice was completely neutral.

When they turned and faces Angus, he felt the pit of his stomach drop. They were wearing a perfectly black mask, with silver etched through it. He had read about the mask in his investigation, one of the mothers had described it, but now that he was actually  _ seeing _ it for the first time he was sharply reminded of another case. One he was  _ going _ to pick up but never actually did, one for Lucas.

He could wonder about the ties between cases later. Now, the masked figure was before him. He had the distinct feeling they were smirking at him, something in the tilt in their head that made him think they believed they were holding all the cards.

As a boy detective, Angus normally liked proving the bad guys wrong. But in this situation, even he had to admit they currently had a leg up on him. Once the charms were finished, that’d be a different story, but going into this confrontation felt too soon. He felt underprepared. 

He smiled anyways.

“Afternoon, Mx.” He said, because even though Mr. Zed had called them a she and gave them a female title, he was never one to assume.

“How polite.” The masked person said, walking around the desk and taking the proper seat. Now sitting across from Angus, he was able to pick up a few more details. The broadness of their shoulders, the size and rough shape of their arms, their body type. He studied these details, determined that if he caught them without their mask on he’d  _ know _ it was them. 

“‘Ma’am’ suits me a bit better,” The figure explained. “I am the Headmistress here.”

Angus raised an eyebrow. “I’ve never seen you around the building before, ma’am.” He said, keeping polite conversation as he took them in.

“No, no you would have not.” The Headmistress said, with a small chuckle. “My work distracts me from the day-to-day business. Normally the Teachers can handle it. I only intervene during special instances.” 

_ Like if a “student” gets too rowdy, huh? _ Angus thought, secretly pleased his bad kid idea had worked. Even if now was not a good time to be taken to see the principal, he’d still count this as a chance to solve this whole mystery. To finally figure out just  _ what _ was going on. 

“Oh?” Was all Angus said aloud.

“Mhm,” The masked person said, leaning back in Mr. Zed’s office chair. “Mr. McDonald, you were made explicitly aware that you joining School was not originally in our plans, correct?”

Angus crossed his arms. “If by all that you mean you kidnapped me because you didn’t want me to crack this mystery and get you arrested, then, yes, I was made aware of this ma’am.”

The Headmistress chuckled. “So brash, young man.” They said. “Well, in that case, perhaps you should realize that ... ‘rocking the boat,’ so to speak, is possibly not the smartest course of action, yes?” 

Angus raised an eyebrow. “Are you threatening me?” He asked. 

“In a way.” They said. “Allow me to cut to the chase.”

They placed their elbows on the desk between the two, leaning on their hands. The eye holes of the mask had a kind of film over them, blacking them out as much as the rest of the mask did and giving Angus no details of the wearers face whatsoever. 

“We cannot kill you, Mr. McDonald.” They explained, perhaps way too casually. “We are very aware of your relationship with three reapers, two of which are especially famous for their involvement in the Story. This does not mean we do not have other ... less savory options.”

Angus leaned back in his chair. “Are you going to expel me, then?” He shouldn’t sass out his captors, he really shouldn’t. But the whole situation was too close to ridiculous to not make him want to snap, if only just a bit. 

The Headmistress didn’t move. Didn’t seem to react in any ways, in fact. They just stared him down for a second, before continuing on.

“Mr. McDonald.” They said. “As you would know, given your investigation, we generally don't pause between kidnappings. The gap between yours and now is probably the biggest hiatus we’ve ever been on. Of course, as you might guess, this is because we have plenty of students. We really don’t need any more children in our halls, not yet. So kidnapping isn’t really on our to-do list any time soon.

“Of course, we  _ could _ add something else to our schedule. Maybe something a bit more severe. Maybe instead of kidnapping, we instead just kill a child? See how the world reacts to that.” 

Angus didn’t respond, he just dug his nails into his arm a bit to keep his face bland. The Headmistress’s voice didn’t change; for all their tone implied, they could’ve been talking about the weather. Which was supposed to be especially intimidating, he knew. There were many criminals in the past who had tried the same maneuver. He kept his face passive to not give them any satisfaction, hiding how much his heart was trying to leap out of his chest and how cold his blood suddenly seemed to run.

“Of course, that does beg a question of  _ who  _ to target.” They continued on, and Angus could feel his stomach drop. “It’s a bit further away from home, but I hear there are two very  _ lovely _ Dwarven kids in Bottlenose Cove.”

Angus’s nails were probably breaking skin at this point, but he kept his face perfectly deadpan. Threats didn’t usually work on him, but, to be fair, the threats he used to deal with had always just been targeted  _ at _ him. After joining the B.o.B, the type of work Angus did didn't allow him to be threatened, and he hadn’t had the family he had now until after  _ that _ .

In a roundabout way, Angus had known growing a family meant they could become targets. But considering who his family  _ was _ , he hadn’t really worried before. Who could actually hurt someone like Taako? Or Magnus or Merle? Or Lucretia, or Lup, or Kravitz, or Barry?

But who could kidnap him from Taako and Kravitz’s house and get away with it? 

The Headmistress leaned back in their chair, and Angus could just  _ tell _ they had a stupid grin on their face.

“I feel we’ve come to a bit more of an understanding.” They said. 

“So what,” Angus said, surprised at how dark his voice suddenly sounded. “I stop being rowdy and unruly, ma’am? Is that the trade here? You’d think your teachers could handle a disobedient kid.”

They shook their head. “School has a fine balance.” They said, as if to begin a long winded explanation. “Everything we do, from the people we target to the way we hold Classes, is designed. We knew taking you would disrupt the system we had going, we anticipated this from the get-go. But it was my  _ sincere _ hope that you could see reason.

“All we ask is that you cease disrupting the balance.” The continued on. “When the other students see you give up, see you mold yourself into School life, they’ll do the same. This little play at rebellion will be put down.”

The Headmistress let the silence settle for only a moment or two, as if timing the pause to let everything sink in for Angus. He hated it. Hated every aspect of this meeting. 

“It is not our intention to harm you, Mr. McDonald, or any of the children here.” They explained. “Our goals do not require this, and despite our  _ willingness _ to harm a child, we do not murder without reason. You should find School life to be enjoyable, once you’ve talked out a proper Class schedule with Mr. Zed.” 

“What  _ is _ your goal?” Angus asked before he could stop himself. “What ... what’s the  _ point _ of all of this?”

The masked figure tilted their head a bit. “Nothing you need to worry yourself about.” They said, almost happily. Clearly, the fact that Angus didn’t know what was going on had given them some semblance of glee. “In fact,  _ do not _ worry about it. Remember Mr. McDonald, you are to become a model student from here on out. Agreed?”

Angus stared them down for a long moment. They could be bluffing. They could absolutely be bluffing and he would have no way of knowing. But they could also not be bluffing. Considering how, exactly, Chelsea was kidnapped, he was more inclined to think they were not. 

It was a good thing he had the makings of a plan forming. It was a good thing his charms were already close to being done.

“Fine,” He huffed. “Agreed”

The masked person nodded. “This includes no more late night planning, you should know.”

Angus had figured that his work on the charms was the source of this confrontation. Him getting into petty arguments with Staff members was one thing, him clearly showing signs of scheming through the night was another. He was reasonably sure they didn’t know what, specifically, he had been working on, unless his room was getting raided while this conversation was happening, so there was hope it was still a plan that could be executed. 

“I figured.” Angus said. “No more planning.”

He should’ve just paced himself and none of this would’ve happened. He  _ knew _ better. Too late to do anything about it, he just had to move forward.

The person before him seemed to study his face for a long, quiet moment. Finally, they nodded slowly.

“Good, glad we sorted this out.” The Headmistress said. “Your dismissed, Mr. McDonald. Don't let me hear your name crop up in the teacher’s complaints again.”

Angus gave them a proper glare, picked up his tray, and headed out. 

Things were about to get a touch more complicated. 


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's popping off now guys! New tags as well, just so you know ^^  
> I estimate something like 1 - 3 more chapters before this is over. Welcome to the beginning of the end :D   
> In case of possible confusion, the first bit is a flashback to the night Angus was kidnapped. It makes more sense later in the chapter ^^  
> Thank you all so much for reading!! :D

_ Kravitz didn’t want to wake up. _

_ That was a pretty weird thought to have at nearly four in the morning, when he was already awake. He was curled around Taako, almost protectively, breathing in the sweet lavender smell of his shampoo. He was comfortable here, warm and relaxed. He could just go back to sleep. _

_ Why was he awake? _

_ He didn’t want to wake up. _

_ He should get up, walk around a bit, see what had woken him. He had been a reaper for nearly a thousand years, his instincts were good. There was probably a reason he wasn’t resting peacefully right now. _

_ He didn't want to wake up.  _

_ If he had strained his ears, he might’ve caught the vaguest sounds of someone walking around the house. If he had listened to it, he would’ve know it wasn’t Taako, because Taako was in his arms, and he would’ve know it wasn’t Angus, ‘cause Angus didn’t make a lot of noise on the hardwood. If he had heard the noises and drawn this conclusion, he probably would’ve been really worried, really fast. _

_ But ... he wasn’t. Because he didn’t listen, so he didn’t hear the noise, so he didn’t draw any correct conclusions.  _

_ He didn’t want to wake up. _

_ He didn’t  _ want _ to wake up. _

_ Kravitz fell back asleep. _

* * *

“Aren’t you cold?”

Beth blinked and looked up. Angus was standing at the bench, a small smile on his face.

Beth wasn’t cold, which was why she hadn’t worn her sweater. But there was a kind of desperation in his face, and she could take a hint.

“A little.” She said, like she was admitting to something. She rubbed her arm, smiling. 

Angus shrugged off his sweater and passed it over, sliding into his seat. There was a new air around him, something that spoke of delicacy, like he’d shatter if pressed wrong.

When Angus had come back from breakfast, he had been escorted straight to the Time Out room. Beth hadn’t been around, but Eric Marks, Angus’s roommate when Angus was actually in his room, had told her that Angus had packed up his Garbage Bag and moved back without a fuss.  _ And _ everything was still packed in it when he got there, no instant mess over his half of the room.

Eric had been a little bummed, since he kind of won from Angus getting sent to Time Out. Angus and him had had a running joke about both of them liking their own room, and Angus was all apologies to how him breaking the rules made Eric’s room a mess. The two of them actually got along pretty OK, considering they hardly saw each other.

Eric had been a bit concerned, was the point. And then Angus had taken the morning Classes off as a request to clean his room, which? Was weird? And it got weirder, because after lunch he was not only  _ in _ Class, but behaving himself. He didn’t even complain about how he  _ had _ to know middle school science already, he just took notes with the rest of them.

And now here he was at dinner, all smiles and giving Beth his sweater. Something was up.

So Beth wasn’t surprised when she slipped the sweater on and felt something in the pocket. She grinned at Angus, as if to try to say  _ message received _ , then the two of them chatted about nothing in particular.

When dinner finished, the two of them went to walk out of the cafeteria together, but were both stopped by Mr. Zed.

“Miss. Minnow?” He had asked, resting a hand on both of their shoulders. “Is that Mr. McDonald’s sweater?”

Beth made a  _ hmm _ noise on cue, looking down. “Oh! Gosh, yes it is! I got cold while in dinner, and Angus is very nice.”

Angus looked on the edge of being terrified, covering it up with a grin. Beth’s deductive skills were going off the chart, her eye for detail taking in more than she could properly process. She had to keep calm. She had to  _ think _ . 

Angus was in trouble. That’s why he’d been behaving himself. That was what the talk during breakfast he been about. He needed her.

Mr. Zed didn’t look super impressed. “If you don’t mind, I’m going to have to ask you to return the sweater.”

Beth nodded, reaching to her Class tote’s strap.

“And,” The teacher before them continued. “I’m going to have to ask you to turn out the pockets before you do so.”

Beth shrugged as nonchalantly as she could. She could tell Angus was keeping his face perfectly steady while wanting to freak out, and she couldn’t blame him. She shrugged off her bag and went to hand it to him, but Mr. Zed took the hand off her shoulder and offered it instead.

Her heart beat all the faster as she let Mr. Zed hold onto her tote. She could hardly tear her eyes away from the scene, from this moment. However this played out was going to affect both her and Angus for the rest of their stay here.

But Mr. Zed just held onto the bag. And when Beth turned out the pockets, she had nothing to show him but the flaps.

He nodded, satisfied. Beth handed Angus back his sweater. She took back her school bag. She tried not to make her relief noticeable.

“Off to Class, then.” Mr. Zed said, dismissing them.

Beth smiled at Angus, who was fighting a relieved expression of his own. The two walked to Class together, neither saying a word.

In Beth’s tote, the envelope Angus had slipped her was securely pinned in her math book.  

* * *

Angus had a specific cipher for parts of his case notes he didn’t like re-reading. That’s what Taako assumed it was for, anyways, because it was a cipher in a personal notebook no one else had access to. Unless he was just a nerd, which  _ was  _ possible, but not likely given the fact that Taako  _ also _ didn’t like reading what the ciphers decoded to. 

Being a detective got really gruesome, really fast. 

Angus hadn’t gotten far enough into his case of the missing kids to warrant a page of cipher-notes, but he  _ had _ started one about the missing machines.

From what Taako could glean, Angus hadn’t  _ seriously _ started that case. He had probably gotten caught up in something else and gotten distracted. But, from the notes, Taako noted a few specific details.

  1. The theft was bloody. They tore through five security guards so ruthlessly there was nothing left to bury.
  2. The kind of magic they used was very eldrith in nature. Angus had the word “Necromancers?” scribbled next to the description of the way to corpses had been flambéed. 
  3. During the robbery, there had to have been at least three crooks. Taako wasn’t certain what specific part of the case made Angus think that, but he believed the kid. Only one person had actually been seen, though, and that was where the details of the mask came from.



After decoding Angus’s journal from that case, Taako had stood up and started making cookies. If anyone noticed they were Extra Peanut Butter Volcano Cookies - i.e., something he was  _ hella _ allergic to but, coincidentally, Angus’s favorite - they didn’t say anything.

While he baked, Taako’s mind went into overtime, turning over what few details they had so many times he was bound to get vertigo. 

Since Lup had said it, Taako hadn’t been able to stop trying to figure out what they used the arcane particle detectors for. Sure, Barry had said they had been able to use it to help find the Light, but now Taako couldn’t help but think Lup was right. They  _ had _ used it for something else, but, for the life of him, Taako couldn’t remember what it was. It would’ve had to have been something really early on, then, something they did before a lot of shit went down. Back within the first couple of decades, at the very least.

Something before the cycles, even? Something they did back on the IPRE base?

If this was frustrating because during the later cycles they only used the particle detectors for a small number of things, then this was extra frustrating because back on their home world they used the detectors for  _ everything _ . Not that Taako did a whole lot of science on that front, he had always been more of the arcanist than the scientist, but Lup talked about it a lot when they worked in office together. It felt like every time she mentioned the particle detectors Taako was about to hear about another weird substance he’d never heard of before.

Barry knew more about the machinery on the Starblaster than anyone, but he was the bond specialist so that was kind of his job. He hadn’t seemed too concern with Lup’s little tidbit, so Taako tried to convince himself that he didn’t need to be either.

But  _ fuck _ it just ... itched something inside? He felt like he should have an answer here. Like it was staring him in the face and he just couldn’t see it.

It was all driving him up the  _ wall _ .

 

* * *

Beth opened the letter as  _ soon _ as class was over. Inside the envelope were two small rings, both looking like they’d barely fit over her pinky, and a letter hurriedly written on notebook paper. The rings were entirely made out of craft wire, but at some point Angus had managed to dye them red and had shaped them both into a small flame with a swirl on the inside.  

Beth opened the letter.

 

_ Beth, _

_ Sorry to have to do this. The Headmistress is watching me closer now. I can’t enact my plans myself, too much is at stake. I’m going to have to ask you to do it. _

_ These rings are Rings of Warmth, best as I could make them anyways. I made two because I was going to ask you to come with, but it looks like it's entirely up to you now. Wearing both should give you extra protection from the cold, but dress as warmly as you can anyways. To activate them, cover the design and think of hot things. Try not to do so before you get outside, I’m not sure if they’ll turn off once activated.  _

_ It’s a lot to ask, and I’m sorry on that front. Hopefully, though, you’ll have little trouble. The two doors of the vestibule are always unlocked after midnight for David’s smoke break, so you’ll only have to worry about sneaking past everyone. _

_ Once you’re out, just run. Send prayers to the Raven Queen, ask for Kravitz, Barry, or Lup. Once your out of range of School, they should be able to hear you. _

_ I’m sorry for leaving this up to you, but I have to act like a model student. Once your gone, I’ll be able to handle everything here knowing help is coming. _

_ Please, _

_ Angus _

 

Later, Beth would never be able to say what, specifically, made her decide to act the way she did. Was it Angus’s desperation in the note? Was it seeing how he had been acting all day? Was it in knowing that he had always planned for her to come with? 

Was it because she wanted so, so badly to be home?

Whatever it was, for a long moment after reading the letter, Beth just stared. Stared and breathed, inhaling sharply and exhaling for a bit longer than she should. Her courage waxed and waned, but then her determination settled into her chest. She knew she was going to go. She was getting out.

She ripped the note up, making the pieces as small as possible. She wanted there to be no evidence when she left, nothing that tied her to Angus. She hid the pieces at the bottom of her Garbage bag with the two rings.

Then she pulled out her sewing kit and got to work.

 

* * *

Taako huffed in thought, pulling a new tray of cookies out of the oven. He sat it down on the hot pad to cool, dancing to the other counter to deposit the oven mits on their proper hook. He snagged a plate full of the chocolate chip cookies, trying to ignore just  _ how _ much of a mess he’d made the kitchen. He had more cookies than anyone was ever going to eat, like, ever. He had to stop or he was going to flood his own kitchen and drown in batter. 

He walked the tray out to the dining room, where a conversation was already underway. 

Taako could count on one hand the number of times Lucretia had been allowed into his house and  _ all _ of those times had been because of this case. She was seated next to Magnus, with Lup and Kravitz across from here. Carey had called earlier, saying her and Killian would be popping by with news about the person who had made the mask, but she had said for them not to hold their breath. Lucretia and Magnus didn’t seem too bothered, they were still trying to convince Lup and Kravitz of some clue or whatever.

“You guys don’t even  _ get _ properly cold!” Magnus argued. Taako slid the plate of cookies onto the table, snagging his own seat. Lucretia took a cookie without even needing to look at it, a habit from their days living on the same spaceship.

“Doesn’t make me wanna head out to some wasteland of ice. Nooo thank you, Lup’s good.” Lup said, leaning back in her chair casually.

“Are you even sure this building is still here?” Kravitz asked, looking a little skeptical. 

“No.” Lucretia said, honestly. “But the fact that the building  _ could _ be there should mean something.”

Lup shrugged. “I’m not super interested, sorry.”

“Oh my god just, like, open a portal and poke your head through!” Magnus insisted. “You’ll probably know, like, right away if Luce is onto something.”

Kravitz shrugged. “It might just be nothing, though. We should wait for Killian and Carey.”

Taako blinked.

Something ... something felt  _ off _ .

“Hey, uh, Krav.” He said, cutting off whatever Magnus was saying. “Since when don’t you follow up leads?”

Kravitz’s gave him a tired look, as if to say  _ what sort of sarcastic thing are you saying now? _ before realizing what, exactly, Taako was asking. His expression shifted to confusion as he thought it over, his mouth open and then closing into a frown.

“I ...” He began. “I don’t. Not ... not normally.”

Taako nodded, looking at an equally confused Lup. The two Reapers shared a quick,  _ wtf _ gaze.

“What about is it about this place, specifically, that makes you not want to visit it?” Taako pressed.

Lup frowned. Kravitz frowned.

Things in Taako’s head clicked.

* * *

“What are you doing?” Abigail had asked.

“Nothing.” Beth had lied.

“I don’t believe you. You’re up to something.”

Beth had sighed and relented. “I’m going to sneak out tonight. After midnight. I might have a way to get home free.”

Abigail studied her face, looking her over seriously. 

“OK.” She said, after a long pause. “So you need someone to distract everyone while you slip out, yea?”

Beth blinked at her. “Um ...”

Abigail nodded. “I can do that, I’m good at being loud. What time were you getting away?”

Beth looked at the sewing in her lap, then back at her roommate. “Um ... probably about one or two am, depending on how long this takes me.”

Abigail nodded again. “Got it. Wake me up before you leave.”

The smaller girl walked back to her bunks, changed for bed. The Night Matron had already come by to check on them, and would do so again when “reading” time was over in half an hour. Beth knew now that she could just hide her sewing under her bedsheets and the Night Matron wouldn’t even notice. She was a good kid. What could she be getting up to?

“Wait, um ...” Beth began, realizing she wanted to ask something else.

Abigail looked back at her, eyebrows raised.

“Can I have your sweaters too, please?” 

 

* * *

Carey and Killian walked into a room where a bunch of their friends were preparing. What, specifically, they were preparing for was lost on Carey. She just got the impression they were really, really cold.

Taako had transmuted a few fall jackets into thicker coats, Lup had dug up snow boots from  _ somewhere _ , Barry was digging through a small box of enchanted items, and Magnus had made a couple of snow shoes. Even Kravitz was wandering around, writing out checklists and helping everyone get stuff done. 

“Um ...” Carey said, to the busy room. “We were gonna tell you we didn’t find anything out from the guy who made the mask, but it seems you guys are ... busy?”

Magnus was the only one who really responded to her.

“Cool, cool, we need someone to run errands anyways.” He said.

“What the fuck is going on?” Killian asked.

“Chaboy’s a good fucking scientist!” Taako cried out, from where he was still spelling coats. 

Magnus gave the two of them a wild grin neither had seen in a long time. “Taako figured out why the Reapers can't find Angus!” He said, way too happily.

Taako gave them a set of finger guns. The two girls glanced from happy face to happy face, still confused. 

“Ooooooh kaaay, so Taako now knows why the Reapers can’t find the kids.” Killian said, slowly. “How’s that a good thing?”

Magnus was still all smiles. “Because Creesh was looking at abandoned buildings.” He explained. “She had one picked out that she thought was a good location, but Lup and Kravitz both were dodging it like the plague, right? And Taako realized it was because there’s a, like, dislike spell going over the building ...”

“Un-Want!” Taako shouted back. “It’s an effect, makes people less likely to notice something because the spell tricks their brain into not  _ wanting _ to look at it.”

Magnus nodded and gestured to Taako, as if to say  _ what he said _ . “Anyways, when Taako pointed that out, we realized that, duh, the kidnappers  _ have _ to be there. So we’re gearing up to raid the place!”

Carey furrowed her brow and looked down at the clock. “It’s already almost two in the morning.”

“Catch them while their sleeping!” Magnus explained. “Once were geared, we’re going to see if we can take a catnap and  _ then _ attack, or if we should wait till tomorrow night.”

Carey nodded slowly. “It’s a good plan,” She decided.

“How can we help?” Killian asked, almost at the same time.

Before anyone could say anything, three people all, simultaneously, stopped what they were doing. Barry, Lup, and Kravitz all sharply lifted their heads, tilting to listen to something no one else could hear. Conversations stalled and stopped, the three Reapers sharing knowing and worried expressions. Kravitz hurriedly put his clipboard down.

“I’m going.” Kravitz said, in answer to something not spoken aloud. He pulled a scythe out of thin air and sliced a hole into reality, creating a portal to somewhere unknown. Kravitz stepped through and disappeared.

Everyone else all looked exactly as confused as they felt.

“What was...?” Taako asked, breaking the silence after a second or two.

Barry shook his head. “We heard the Raven Queen.” He explained. “Someone’s praying to her, calling to us.”

“Someone alive?” Magnus asked, sounding hopeful.

Lup nodded, but looked a bit confused. “It ... it wasn’t Angus, if that’s what you’re thinking.” She explained. “It didn’t sound like anyone we knew.”

“What does that mean?” Carey asked.

Silence filled the room for the barest couple of seconds. Right when Carey was about to suggest that, despite how dower they sounded, this  _ could _ be a good thing, there was the sound of tearing paper. A new portal opened into the living room. 

Kravitz stepped back through, holding a little girl in his arms.

 

* * *

Beth hated everything about everything. She felt ridiculous,  _ looked _ ridiculous, and was probably going to get caught because she  _ was _ ridiculous. 

The sweaters School provided were mediocre at best. They were made out of a lightweight knit material, so they were stretchy in both directions of the grain. Beth had taken one look at her sweaters and though  _ this is going to be a bitch to sew _ , and she wasn’t the least bit wrong. If she had a few days, a rotary cutter, and maybe a sewing machine, she would’ve been able to produce something halfway decent. As it was, she didn’t even have fabric scissors, just a pair of craft ones and a set of trim scissors that came in the sewing kit.

Of course, everyone was counting on her, so she would the best with what she had, but gods be  _ damned _ if it was going to look halfway decent.

And now, a little after midnight, Beth looked over her work with a gross expression she couldn’t get rid of. It was all so  _ ugly _ . She used to make her own  _ clothes _ and now she had to wear a hat that had the wankist seam she’d  _ ever _ sewn. Sewn with white thread on black fabric, even. Invisible seams couldn’t help her now, it was the most stereotypical “a child made this” thing she had ever created ever. 

It’d have to do. Honestly, she really shouldn’t complain. The only reason she had cut up one of her sweaters to make a hat was to try to keep the delicate parts of her face warm, and it’d do  _ that _ at least. Angus had said she should bundle up - she was going be smart about this. She had a new hat -  _ gods just ignore how ugly it looks! _ \- and a new scarf, as well as her one remaining sweater and Abigail’s two. The end of her makeshift scarf were tucked into the top sweater, the body of the scarf wrapped carefully around her face. She was wearing two pants and two pairs of socks, though the dress shoes School provided were pretty much going to counteract that measure. Pinned to the front of her top sweater was the two rings, carefully stitched into place. Beth wasn’t entirely sure if they’d work pinned to the front of her clothes like this, but if it didn’t she had her trim scissors with her so she could cut them free and try to stuff them under her makeshift mittens (the mittens, at least, looked halfway decent). 

She tried not to think about how the trim scissors were also the only thing she had in the way of a weapon. It was fine, probably. Nothing could survive in this cold, probably.

She also had, like, magic and shit. She could probably get off at least two bolts of Magic Missile, and knew enough of Fireball to maybe work one of those out too. She’d be fine.

Probably.

Before she could think about it much further, she took a deep breath and began to exam her room. She looked for things she might need to take with her, things she needed to hide from the Staff. Angus’s torn to bites note was stuffed in her sweater pocket already, absolutely  _ nothing _ could imply he had helped her with this in any way. They were already going to assume he had something to do with it, she wasn’t giving them any definitive proof. 

Satisfied that nothing she cared about was in sight (she left all the scrap fabric laying out, let them think she made her escape by somehow sewing something warm enough) Beth finally gathered her courage and woke up Abigail.

“You look ridiculous.” Her roommate said, sliding out of bed with a yawn. “Is that really going to keep you warm enough out there?”

“Well, I’m overheating now, so probably” Beth explains, not mentioning the charms. Abigail seems to be pointedly ignoring them, even though they were fixed like a badge to the front of her outfit.

“Well, don’t you sound sure of yourself.” Abigail said instead, sarcastic as anything.

Beth grinned. “I don’t have to get far.” She explained. “These people took Angus, whose family members are reapers to the Raven Queen. If I just pray as I’m walking, eventually one of them will hear me.”

Abigail looks skeptical, but shrugs. “Not my life on the line.” She says.

Beth almost makes a joke about how if she died, than the Reapers would  _ definitely _ notice her, but stops herself. That was too morbid and too much of that joke was stemming from her anxiety. 

“Are we ready, or what?” Beth says instead.

Abigail grins. “Give me ten minutes. Listen for when the Night Matron walks by. I could probably rope David into my ‘problem’ too.”

Beth nodded, smiling. “Hey, Abby?” She says, “Thank you. Seriously.”

Abigail rolled her eyes, but she’s still got the grin. “Get us home,  _ that’s _ how you can thank me.”

And then she’s out the door. 

Abigail had told Beth to give her ten minutes, but it really only takes about five. Beth listens at their dorm room door as the girl goes on just  _ wailing _ at the Night Matron - something about a nightmare, falling out of bed, and how much she wanted to have her own room. Abigail’s being a proper nuisance to deal with too, refusing to see the Nurse about her possible injuries. The Night Matron has to get David to agree to carry her before Abigail will go at all.

They walk past Beth’s room, and then Beth’s  _ gone _ .

It was 100% sheer luck that kept her from being spotted as she wandered through the halls of School. Angus and her had drawn a map ages ago, so she knew how to get to the front door well enough. She was also reasonably aware of the patterns of the security officers, but she couldn’t say she’d made it a habit to sneak out of her room at night. No, that was more Angus’s specialty, so she felt very much like she had just stepped out into the unknown. 

At this point, though, Beth was running without looking. Everything outside the building she was being kept in was the unknown. She was going to be moving blind.

By some  _ serious _ good stroke of fate, Beth made it to the front door.

No one was posted by the door, though usually there was a patrol going around this area. Beth managed to get the first door open and wiggle herself into the vestibule when no one was around, dodging that possible fall out. 

The vestibule was a not-room between the two front doors. The duality was mostly for the sake of the insulation than anything else, otherwise the door would have to be  _ massive _ to get through the wall. The not-room smelled very heavily of smoke; David, the security officer, smoked in here during his late night shifts. Thank gods for that, otherwise the inner door of the vestibule would be locked.

But why would they worry too much? No one was stupid enough to try to head outside.

Beth took a steadying breath, trying not to gag on the smell of cigarette smoke. Inside the vestibule, it was already getting much too cold. She was shivering heavily, and the closer she walked to the outer door the worse it got. She pressed a hand over the two charms, thinking of a bonfire on a warm summer night. Almost right away, the cold evaporated. Both charms started to steadily glow red, and soon her outfit was too hot again.

Beth took a final breath, turning the heavy doorknob with both hands. She pushed at the door, feeling the snow beyond shift, the weight against the solid metal acting almost like a protest. 

The door cleared the frame, and then a loud  _ ear splitting _ alarm started to beep. 

_ Beep! Beep! Beep!  _

Beth swore aloud, pushing the door as hard as she could. She made the crack only big enough to slip outside, not pausing to worry about how the snow went clear up to her knees and was easily getting into her shoes.

The charms worked. The snow immediately around her melted away, and despite the biting wind Beth only felt a touch chilly. Like a warm autumn day with a cold breeze, not the tundra she was actually in. Both rings pulsed brightly.

She ran, and ran, and ran, trying not to trip over her own feet. Running through snow was hard enough on it own, her legs kept getting caught in the snow drifts and it was hard to yank them free. She turned back to take a look at the building she just came from, but she already could only barely see it.

It didn’t seem like anyone was following her. She was alone.

Alone and in the middle of nowhere. A blizzard of snow whipped around her, with nothing else for miles. Not that she could see that far; in fact, if there wasn’t a storm happening she would probably still be in easy sight of School. She made sure she was facing where she had just come from, then turning  _ exactly _ 180 degrees from there, walking  _ away _ from School. She wasn’t going to get lost out here, no sirree.

She hadn’t expected the alarm. She might have to run again soon.

But, for now, she was going to have to conserve her strength. Rings of Warmth or not, the snow was going to sap at her, just because the banks were hard to navigate. She walked carefully, fully aware that her dress shoes weren’t good for traction. It was almost weird, feeling how the snow went up to her knees without chilling her at all. Angus was good at making charms, or else the two charms together had really done the trick. 

She counted to two hundred in her head as she walked, listening to the wind whistle past. After her count, when she felt sure she had made a good distances from School, she started to pray.

_ Oh, Raven Queen _ , She thought, only vaguely sure how prayer worked.  _ I’m one of the missing children. Angus requested I get help. I need one of your reapers. _

Beth didn’t stop walking, but as she prayed she listened. The blizzard around her was loud enough on its own, but after a while it was just the same wind whistling noises over and over.  She shivered a few times, if only out of gut reaction to seeing the snow and not because she was actually cold. She wasn’t actually sure if she was cold, all she really knew was that she wasn’t overheating anymore, but without the charms she would’ve probably froze to death right outside the door.

_ Hey, uh, Raven Queen? I could do with some help. _ Beth tried again, keeping her ears and eyes trained. 

The snow didn’t let up. Beth kept up her weird shuffling walk, keeping her arms crossed close to her chest. She wasn’t entirely sure when she started to do that. She was also shivering a bit more, and she wasn’t entirely sure when that happened either. Was she cold? She couldn’t tell. Time seemed to just crawl past her. She couldn't even tell if she was actually walking somewhere, or if she had secretly just been slipping down the same snowslope this entire time. When she turned back, the blizzard had already erased most of her footprints, so even that didn’t help.

_ Please? Hear me? I need Kravitz, or Lup, or Barry! _

“Please?!” Beth shouted out loud, surprised that her “shout” wasn’t actually that loud in the wind. “Please!”

Desperation was creeping in. Exactly  _ how _ far did she need to walk to be heard? Wasn’t it just a spell put over the building? Outside of its range, she should’ve been home free.

Or did it extend  _ very _ far away from the building?

Or ... Or was  _ she _ cursed?

There was a loud  _ pop _ from her sweater, and everything, suddenly, got a  _ lot _ colder. Beth glanced down to see one of the two charms falling to pieces. The other wasn’t glowing so brightly anymore, or maybe that was just because Beth was shaking too hard to see it properly. She could feel frost clinging to her hair, and snow started to slide into her shoes.

_ I’m going to die _ , Beth thought, suddenly,  _ I’m going to freeze to death trying to walk to freedom _ .

The morbid joke was still in the back of her mind; she couldn't help the thought that if she  _ did _ die, at least a reaper would notice. She’d still be able to save everyone else, from Abigail and Angus to the other kids, like Aaron and Eric and Chelsea. 

She kept walking. She didn’t want to die, but she was starting to get so,  _ so _ tired. She hadn’t slept yet, had been awake nearly twenty hours. And the last few had been nothing but pure stress. She should take a break, right? Have a sit down and gather herself?

No, no wait. You couldn’t sit down in the snow, right? You couldn’t rest until you had shelter, otherwise the cold could kill. Beth looked around, but there was no shelter in sight.

_ Please? Please Raven Queen, I need  _ someone _. _

There was another loud  _ pop! _ and suddenly it was way too cold. Beth collapsed under the weight of it, her fingers buried close to her chest but completely unresponsive. The snow around her was awful, absolutely worst than anything she had ever experienced before. It was pressing pure ice to her skin, swallowing her entirely. The blizzard pounded more snow on top, as if to bury her alive.  

“Please.” She whined, feeling tears snake out of her eyes and freezing almost instantly. She was in so much pain she couldn’t feel any of it. She couldn’t feel anything anymore.

It was two in the morning. Somewhere, a group of people paused as three of them suddenly stopped their conversations.

Beth felt her consciousness slipping away. In a way, she was relieved. She didn’t want to feel herself freeze to death, and she  _ was _ really tired. She let her eyes close.

Vaguely, she heard the sound of ripping paper. 


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ

“What the fuck?  _ Who _ the fuck?!”

“Barry, do you know any healing?”

“N-not enough. I can stabilize her, I thiiink.”

“You do that, Carey call Merle please.”

“Kravitz, what the  _ fuck _ ?!”

“She was the one calling to us, but we couldn’t hear her until she was nearly dead. Taako, she  _ walked _ . She had to have, she was about two and a half miles from the building.”

“So the fuckers  _ are _ there? This has to be like a 100% guarantee.” 

“I would say so, yes.”

“The Un-Want spell can’t be on the building, it’s got to be on the kids. I doubt this kid  _ wasn’t _ calling for help before she crashed.”

“I was thinking the same. I think her nearly dying is what made her noticeable.”

“That’s fucked up. This is fucked up.”

“Merle’s on his way.”

“Thank fuck, ‘cause I don’t know enough about hypothermia.”

“Move your butt Barry, Lup still remembers cycle 50”

Beth groaned.  The conversations around her stopped for a moment. When the people started to talk again, they were speaking with a softer voice. She appreciated it; the headache she had was unreal. 

“New plan. We’re gonna wait for Merle, heal this kid enough so we can get the full story.  _ Then _ we charge in.”

“You sure Maggie? I doubt the kidnappers are going to sit idly by after this kid escaped.”

“And they're going to use our lack of knowledge against us. At least this kid can give us a rough map of the building, and what happens where. No matter what we’re leaving tomorrow night.”

“I agree with this plan. Spell slots, man.”

“That’s a fair argument. Plus, once Merle’s here we can convince him to come with.” 

“How’s the kid looking?”

“She might be warming up too fast, ditch the blanket. God this whole thing is fucked up to look at, just the implication of what this girl's gone through. Kiddo’s wearing, like, eight layers and none of them are particularly warm. Look at the hat and the mittens, she had to have made them herself.”

Beth groaned again. She didn’t want people to look at the hat and mittens, they were ugly.

“I mean, it’s resourceful, don’t get me wrong, but how was this enough for her to travel two and a half miles?”

Beth wanted to sit up and explain, but the call to fall asleep was much stronger. Her eyes were already closed, so it was only a matter of calming her breathing before she was out like a light.

* * *

 

When the alarm to the doors went off, Angus was already dressed.

He hadn’t meant to be. Being dressed and asleep in bed was actually kind of a point against him. But he had spent all of reading time pacing, Eric telling him a couple of times that he was going to burn a rut in the floor, and then had gotten so exhausted that he just crawled under his covers for lights out. He, at least, had remembered to take off his shoes, so he had counted that as a win.

Well, it got to be less of one when the entire complex suddenly lit up in panic.

_ Beep! Beep! Beep! _

The alarm roared through the entire building. Eric and him both sat up sharply, looking at each other with shock.

_ Please tell me Beth got out OK, _ Angus prayed briefly, grabbing his glasses from his shoes, stashed next to his bed.  _ Please tell me she’s OK _ .

If she got caught, they had no more chances of escape,  _ and _ she’d get hell for it. Angus didn’t want that, he really, truly didn’t.

Just as he was thinking that, the door to their room practically broke as David threw it open. Behind him was the Night Matron, who rushed off the second she saw him there. Angus half expected David to walk away too, but the security officer just stomped in and snagged him by the arm, all but dragging him out of bed.

“W-wait!” Eric protested. “Angus has been here all night, I swear!”

David glared at Eric, causing him to shut up instantly. The guard looked Angus and down, giving  _ him _ a glare.

“I was tired!” Angus insisted.

“Saves us time then, I guess.” He said, rolling his eyes. He basically dragged Angus out of the room, gripping his arm so tightly Angus knew he’d have bruises later. Barefoot, Angus stumbled after him.

Out in the hall there were security officers  _ everywhere _ . Some of the teachers were awake too, giving pointed glares when kids poked their head out of their doors to figure out what was going on. Mr. Zed gave Angus a look when he passed by, like he was surprised it wasn’t Angus who had snuck out. Angus didn’t have much time to react, already being dragged down the hall.

David was built like Magnus was, he was nearly 250 lbs of pure muscle and had training to back it up. This was a man who had lifted Angus once by the collar and hauled him back inside, so the detective knew he really couldn’t do anything here. He tried not to let his fear show, anyways.

He had known he’d get in trouble when Beth went missing - he had too big of a target on him to not - but hopefully this wouldn’t go back on Mavis and Mookie. That was his plan there, with Beth long gone there was no way they were going to try anything  _ else _ that would get them caught. If they were smart and careful, and Angus was  _ very _ certain they were, their current course of action would be to lock down the building. They wouldn’t be doing  _ more _ incriminating things. 

That said, safe as Mavis and Mookie were,  _ he _ definitely wasn’t. He tried not to let the panic claw in his throat as David tugged him into a hall the students never used.

Down at the end was a set of elevator doors, with a fingerprint scanner and card reader besides it. Angus had wandered down this hall in his exploration before, but while the trick Taako had taught him had gotten him out of Time Out, it wasn’t going to work getting him through this door. The fingerprint scanner had been another obstacle, so Angus had ignored the door for a later date. He felt his blood run cold as he was dragged towards it.

The doors opened when the duo got close. Standing inside was the masked person from earlier, still as androgynous as ever. 

No... wait. Angus blinked at them. They weren’t the same height as the other person. They were about an inch shorter, with thinner shoulders as well. This was a different person, dressed the same and wearing clothes specifically  _ so _ it’d be hard to tell they weren’t the same masked figure from earlier.

In Angus’s study of the case for Lucas, he had noted that there were three robbers, but the witness had only seen one of them. He’d bet money that they all dressed exactly the same.

David stopped him by the elevator, pulling his hands behind his back and zip tying his wrists together. Angus gave the masked person a glare, hoping he wasn’t looking as panicked as he felt.

“Need me to come down with you, Headmistress?” David asked.

“I’m sure I can handle it.” They answered. The voice was very,  _ very _ close. If Angus didn’t have the memory for detail he had, he would’ve assume it was the same voice.

David shoved the detective into the elevator, passing him into the waiting hand of the Headmistress, the later of whom grabbed his upper arm as well, but perhaps not as tightly.

“Lot of precaution for a kid.” Angus said, tugging on the zip ties. Having his hands tied was the absolute worst. In every bad situation he’d ever been in, very few had gotten him tied up. It made them stand out all the more in his head.

The masked figure gave them a look that was mostly hidden by the mask.

The elevator doors shut. It was very, very subtle, but Angus could feel the car jerk as it began its descent. He was almost instantly reminded of the elevator to the Bureau headquarters in Neverwinter. 

“You promised to stay out of trouble.” The masked figure said. “I will take all the precautions necessary.”

“ _ You  _ weren’t at that conversation.” Angus snapped back. “This is the first time we’ve met.” 

They chuckled, airily. “Guess the title really isn’t bullshit, huh kid?”

“Where are we going?”

“The basement, obviously.”

Angus huffed, but shut up. 

_ Elevator _ , He thought to himself,  _ Very smoothe elevator. Miller? _

Ice tundra ... Miller labs ... 

Angus knew where he was. Well, he had always kinda of known where he was, there weren’t exactly a  _ ton _ of ice tundras near Neverwinter. But he knew of this  _ specific _ base. He could remember reading about the biochemistry studies happening out here, the lab shut down due to lack of funding for the heat. 

This building shouldn’t have any power, it was disconnected from the grid. And if they were going into the basements, i.e. the laboratories, then they  _ really _ shouldn’t have any power. Somehow, the kidnappers had gotten this old building working again.

Angus wracked his brain, trying to think if he remembered reading anything about the  _ team _ that used to work here. Where had they gone? Or had they dropped out of the scientific community? 

Where they still working here?

Angus twitched his fingers as he thought, the elevator arriving at its destination. 

The lab below was exactly as he expected. A long hall with large offices on either side, with big floor to ceiling glass windows set in pretty much every wall. The masked figure tugged him along, and he got a serious look into the labs they were passing.

This was no longer a biochemistry lab. There were still elements of it lying around, some vaguely familiar equipment and a handful of sample housing fridges and compartments, but a  _ lot _ had been gutted. Now there was a lot of tech development underway, two of the labs looking like an out of control version of Barry’s “Tech Corner” in his laboratory basement. Angus had seen Barry taking things apart and redesign them before, so a lot of the  _ system _ to the labs were familiar to him, but the actual tech and blueprints laid about? He didn’t have a clue about those. 

The hall veered sharply left at the door of another lab, or so Angus assumed. Unlike the ones they had passed, this lab didn’t have the window peering in. The duo didn’t go in, either. Instead, the masked person turned with the hall. On their left were thick, steel doors, with nothing on the right. Angus was instantly reminded of cells as the mask figure started to unlock one of the doors.

Angus felt his resolve waver a bit, watching the not-Headmistress use not only a key card reader, a fingerprint scanner, but also a regular lock and key. Three locks, all difficult to unlock from the far side of the door. The only way he’d be able to get out was to cast Knock three times, or maybe Blink, and something was telling him it wasn’t going to be that easy. Not that  _ that _ plan was all that easy; he didn’t exactly  _ have _ a lot of level two spell slots to burn, and he could only cast Blink if he stretched. 

The masked figured opened the door to what was, in essence, a Time Out room. There was the familiar cot, the door to the small bathroom, and absolutely nothing else. They pulled something out of their pocket, clutching it in their fist before waving that hand through the door frame. There was a small electrical noise, then nothing. Satisfied, they pushed him in, not bothering to cut the zip tie whatsoever. 

“Now,” They said, clearly grinning under the mask. “The door is trapped, hence why I waved my hand through. You try to cross through without one of us? You’ll get a good, hearty zap. Nothing that’ll kill ya, but two shocks will probably knock ya out cold. No magic in this room, or else zap. No tampering with the plumping, or the walls, or the ceiling, or zap. You get the picture. Each zap  _ also _ triggers an alarm, so we’ll be here in no time flat. No mischief.”

Angus raised an eyebrow. “Couldn’t you have just made the room magic proof?” He asked, baffled at how over the top the set- up was.

“Oh no, we still  _ want _ you to have magic.” They said. He gave them a baffled face. “Think about it some, I’m sure you have no chance of figuring it out.”

Angus made a face. “Are you going to untie me?”

They tilted their head, clearing just smirking.

“Then don’t I get a hint?” He asked. “Clearly I’m down here ‘cause you’re going to do something awful, right? You could just tell me everything.”

They laughed, and it wasn’t the least bit a nice sound. 

“Fine then, one hint, because I’d love to see if you actually can  _ comprehend _ this.” They said, mockingly. “You know of the Starblaster, correct?”

Angus blinked, thrown completely off guard by the change in topic.

“Of course you do,” The masked person said, continuing on with little pause. “You live with the people who own it, you probably know more about it than anyone. Well, most anyone. See, it’s currently just sitting in the museum, right? A big old celebration was had, where Captain Davenport went on and on about how it was his honor to retire the old ship where people could view it. So now, any chump with a sketchbook can come in and take  _ detailed _ notes about the build of the thing.  _ Especially  _ if they can cast, say, Clairvoyance and see the inner workings.”

Angus slowly shook his head in confusion.  

“Stew on it.” They said, “I bet you’ll get it eventually.”

And with that, the door slammed closed, leaving Angus in a half-lit room with no use of his hands. 

And a big puzzle piece to the mystery, but without a clue as to how it fitted in. 

 

* * *

Lup didn't pace. Taako was pacing and he made the exercise look exhausting. He also really didn't have the space for it, so he kept running into people. Which wasn't as bad as it probably could've been, considering most of the people in the room had to live a century with someone trying to pace in closed quarters, but usually that person was Barry.

Barry, incidentally,  looked like he wanted to also wanted to be moving pointlessly back and forth, but with Taako already wearing a hole in the floor there really wasn't room. He played with his fingers instead, everyone watching Merle work with tense anticipation. 

“You guys really know how to make a Dwarf feel comfortable” Merle grumbled, for maybe the third time since he arrived.  “Hypothermia is no joke. It's classified as one part injury and one part condition. Normally we'd want to use normal medicine and not prayers.”

“We don't got the time" Magnus insisted, again. 

Merle nodded. “That's fair, but the kids gonna need to rest. The spell work really exhausts the body, you know?”

It was always surreal to hear Merle actually talk  _ medical _ . Sometimes Lup was convinced he didn't actually have any training in medicine, that he just prayed every now and then and cast spells, but then he talked jargon and she had no way of knowing if it was made up or not. 

“Is there any way to, like, speed up the process?” Magnus asked. 

“Not really. But she should only be out a maximum of four hours. There'll be a window after that until regular old sleepiness kicks in.”

The ragtag group had settled into their continued planning and prepping. Dawn had happened when no one was looking, and the humans had all crashed sometime after that. Lup and Taako got in their mediation too, slipping away off and on in the living room with the girl.

She still wasn't awake. 

She looked a lot better though. Her lips were no longer blue, and her fingers had lost that scary purple coloring. The makeshift hat and gloves had been put aside, and Lup and Lucretia had shimmied her out of her outer layers to keep her from overheating. Under the black sweaters, she was wearing a navy blue polo and a pair of black pants, with a pair of black dress shoes that were currently off to the side. 

Lup was reminded, strongly, of a school uniform looking at her. 

“Are you sure we can't wake her?” Lup asked.

Merle shrugged. “She's probably been napping on and off. Spells should've finished by now”

Lup noticed, acutely, that he didn't give her a  _ yes _ . At most, that had been a  _ maybe _ . 

“Fuck it.” Lup said, walking to the couch. 

They had kept the kid in the same room they had been preparing in so they could keep an eye on her. With the gear as ready as they were gonna get it, they had all sort of crashed in various other rooms of Taako and Kravitz’s house. The kid had stayed on the couch, since by then they didn't want to move her. Lup and Taako had both meditated off and on, both of them keeping an ear out for her, without hearing anything.

Lup gently shook her arm, and jumped back when the girl jerked awake. The kid shouted, not quite screaming but clearly was  _ going _ to before she realized where she was. After that, the kid blinked and looked around, leaning against the couch.

“Uh...” The girl started. “Hi...?”

Lup smiled, trying to keep passive. “Hi.” She said. “Thank fuck, kiddos OK”

Merle gave Lup a thumbs up as Magnus walked over, the big guy pausing as he got close. He clearly didn't want to crowd her. 

“You’re Beth Minnow, right?” He asked. Lup didn’t ask him how he knew - Magnus had spent way more time with the families of the missing kids than any of the rest of them.

The kid nodded slowly.

“Um ... Yeah, yeah I am.” She blinked. “and, um, your Angus's family!” She suddenly seemed more alert than before, as if realization dawned on her, or as if she had finally finished waking up. “I need your help, I'm one of the missing kid's and-!”

Magnus gestured soothingly. “You were being held in the lab in the ice tundra, yea?”

Beth sputtered a bit, but then nodded. 

“We're going there tonight, we've been preparing all day” Magnus explained, gesturing to the room. “We just wanted to ask you a couple of questions, ok? We wanna know what we're walking into”.

Beth nodded, almost eagerly, clearly wanting to help. 

“Kid, you walked two and a half miles before we could hear you” Lup explained, cutting in over Magnus. “How did you get out? What's going on in there?”

“Um, well it was Angus's plan” Beth explained. “But they, uh they’ve kept a close eye on him since day one, since he's a detective and, um, he kind of got himself labeled a troublemaker? So he knew he couldn't get out, so he slipped me a note and some charms he had made”

Taako's face was a broad grin.  “That's my magic boy!” he said. “Fucking glad he talked me into those lessons.”

Beth had a very serious expression on her face. “I... I don't know everything, like not about what Angus went through, but ...” She seemed to be puzzling something out in her head. “Everything about the kidnapping? It, it's weird, I'll warn you now.”

And then Beth went on to explain School.

 

* * *

There are a variety of ways to escape zip ties. They weren’t  _ absolutely _ secure, after all, since they were just a piece of plastic with a clever closure. Angus employed the method that took probably the longest time, but was easiest to do with his hands behind his back.

He hadn’t been able to position his hands when David had tied them together, but there was still  _ just _ enough room for him to wiggle his hands, trying to carefully puzzle it out so one could slip past the other. Angus sat on the cot and worked at it for about thirty minutes - careful not to let the band chafe into his skin and cause swelling - finally getting one to slide free. 

With the zip tie gone, Angus re-examined his prison as he rubbed at his wrists, unsurprised when that yielded no new results. He half wanted to try a spell and see if the masked person was lying about the trap, but that’d be a pretty wasteful exercise. Even if they were lying, it wouldn’t get him much of anywhere, and he had the sneaking suspicion they  _ weren’t _ lying. 

_ Why not just make it magic proof? _ He thought to himself.  _ What does the Starblaster have to do with it? _

They had gone out of their way to keep him from casting spells, without specifically smothering the spark inside him that allowed him to do so in the first place.  Nowhere in School was magic proof at all. Originally, Angus had assumed that they  _ couldn’t _ magic proof it for some reason - after all, a large group of Sorcerers, people who basically  _ dripped _ magic, would be easier to contain in a magic free environment.

But they still had that magic essence going strong. Which meant it could be picked up on by machines or spell work. The kidnappers wanted to absorb the essence, the magic that pooled in the building, that had to have been it.

But ... where did the Starblaster fit into that?

Angus laid on his back, staring up at the ceiling. Why Sorcerers? Why kids? Why allow them to have magic?

Why had he been kidnapped? If they wanted him to stop investigating, there was a much easier way of doing it, and clearly they weren’t  _ against _ murder like he had previously thought. He wasn’t a Sorcerer. He didn’t have anything in common with the kids here, bearing some similar personality traits.

_ “...you ever noticed how we all have families? Like, all of us here.” _

Angus sat up sharply, Beth’s words coming back to him. 

_ “...I'm pretty sure there a few other kids in the orphanage who are Sorcerers too...” _

_ “...Even you...You've got a big ol’ family, I've got a big ol’ family...” _

He had a family. He had a family that was missing him and he was  _ missing them _ . He had a  _ bond _ with them.

All of the kids, they all had bonds back home. They were all  _ missing _ someone. Not only that, but there were kids here making  _ friends _ , simply out of the need to have a empathetic person to talk to. School  _ encouraged _ it. Encouraged them to bond with their fellow students, with their roommates, to even talk more to the other teachers. Even when Angus had been in Time Out he had still be let out for meal times, to bond with the other kids.

The masked people had figured out how to build a bond engine.

* * *

 

Bonds are a very loosely understood science. When it was studied - mostly on a planet with a lavender sky and two suns - it was studied by serious arcanists who took to the task with one part science and one part magic in mind. Barry Bluejeans was one of the main members of the bond science group, arguably one of the best at it too. Though, perhaps that was merely because the science field itself had only existed a year before the Starblaster’s initial launch.

After that, bond science wasn’t really pursued anymore. Sure, there was still a group of scientists on a revitalized plane that could build more bond based equipment, but it was agreed that bond science was too unknown. It felt too ... sacrilegious to study a magic that was responsible for the constant resurrection of the most famous seven people in the planar systems. The same technology that summoned aid at the moment of the world’s -  _ univere’s  _ \- need. Afterwards, Captain Davenport would recall the final flight to the Hunger by saying the bond engine almost had a  _ life _ . The bonds it took in and stored had changed it, making it grow to have some kind of understanding. Whenever Davenport stepped on board of the Starblaster, the engine always kicked on - by itself - with a purr. 

So the bond engine of the Starblaster was one part living, one part a bundle of nothing but joy. When it was donated to the IPRE museum in Neverwinter, it seemed to glow in response to the awe poured at it. Barry, the only one who could be considered an expert in this underdeveloped field, had shrugged and said it seemed happy enough. 

No one on a plane with two suns and purple sky studied bond science before the Light of Creation fell. 

In this plane, people began to study it just before an event called the Relic Wars. They discovered it through sea slugs, frozen under miles of ice.

These two directions couldn’t have ended in more opposite places.

* * *

Taako took a deep breath, hands clapped before his face as he stared the kid down, wide eyed and confused to hell.

“Question.” He said. “What the  _ helllllll _ ?”

He could see nodding heads out of his peripheral as people agreed with him.

The human girl, Beth, nodded seriously. “It made Angus really mad, actually. He didn’t get the  _ point _ . He asked me a lot about Classes and stuff, constantly ruling out theories. Him and I both were trying to figure it out for the first week, then Angus decided he’d ask the bad guys once they were behind bars.” She smiled softly. “His words, not mine. So that’s when he started puzzling out his escape plan.”

Taako looked at Barry. Barry shrugged wildly at him, as if to say  _ how the fuck should I know? _

“OK, OK, well fine then.” Lup interrupted. “We go kick their asses and  _ then _ find out what’s going on, agreed?” 

Beth bounced a little in place. “Can I come with?” She asked.

“No.” Several adults, all at once, said. The girl pouted, then opened her mouth to argue. “No.” Several adults all said at once, again. 

“Look, kid.” Taako said. “We’re not taking a kid into battle. Nope, nuh uh, no way.” 

“But I know where everything is!” Beth complained.

“Still not happening. We’ll figure it out.” Taako said. “Kiddo, we don’t even take  _ Angus _ with us on dangerous missions. We’re going to have a hard enough time getting the rest of you shorties out unharmed, let alone a kid we brought  _ back _ into danger. Nope, not happening.”

Beth pouted, but then sighed and seemed to relent. “I’m just ...” She explained, looking tired. “I’m scared. For them. For Angus, really.” 

Magnus’s face fell into something sympathetic. “It’s going to be OK.” He said, with a rare serious tone. “They’re going to be OK. You can trust me on that.”

Beth stared at him, then looked around the room. Taako knew exactly what she was looking at; the ax on top of Magnus’s gear, the wands littered practically everywhere, the reapers with the  _ aura _ of intimidation they seemed to have, the glaive, the coats, the bags, the  _ everything _ . They weren’t fucking around, and in Taako’s living room it was very, very obviously. They were getting Angus back. Fuck this School thing, fuck all of that. Whatever was going on in this building in the middle of nowhere, they were going to get Ango the  _ fuck _ away.

Beth took a breath, then nodded. “OK.” She said. “I trust you.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm on tumblr too @aceface98 :3333


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OK, I'm seriously really sorry it took this long to update. A lot of other stuff has been going on in my life, so this kinda got pushed to the sidelines, and next thing I knew it was 5 weeks later and holy fuck. This chapter is also kinda short, but after this unplanned pause I wanted to publish something to prove I hadn't completely forgotten about this.  
> After this there'll probably be one final chapter, and then maybe an epilogue if I wanna do the comfort part of this hurt/comfort in a separate chapter. All up in the air ^^  
> Thank you all for sticking with me :333 I should be able to get back to a schedule here now that real life isn't as crazy, but I'm learning a new job position as well so I might just eat those words XD

Angus paced through the room, thinking.

He was at a weird place, detective mindset wise. This was the part of the investigation where he felt the most lost, the part where he both knew  _ so much _ and  _ nothing _ . He now understood why School was, like,  _ a _ thing. He got the point of kidnapping kids, people who made bonds easily and with little effort; he got how they kept the lab running, and why they had picked this isolated place that was neigh on impossible to escape from; and he assumed he got the point of kidnapping Sorcerers, the kind of people who dripped magical energy that was fairly easy to gather.

But there was a bigger  _ why _ that still lingered. What point did building a bond engine serve? And, also, couldn’t they have put it literally _ anywhere _ and gathered energy? Bonds existed constantly, without any sort of pause. Barry had explained it to him once after a couple glasses of wine and a long winded discussion about thermal energy.

“It’s like, more magic than science, right?” He had said, his gestures more wild with the alcohol in his system. “Like you have shit like covalent bonds, which are literal,  _ physical _ bonds we can observe, and then you have  _ friendship _ . Or  _ acquaintanceship _ . Both are bonds. The person you see walking down the street? You even have a bond with them, because your in a similar planar location at the same time.”

“Babe, you’re using too many nerd words.” Lup had said, taking the cup of wine. “Bond science is too complicated for some of our world’s greatest scientists, Angus, don’t worry if it sounds like he’s just spouting nonsense.”

Barry had pouted at her. “It does make sense!” He had insisted. “It’s like ... you know how magic is everywhere, conceptually? But, like, some places have more magic than others? Same with bonds. You make bonds with people, all the time, but some are stronger than others just because. Like. Like. Your best friend versus your worst enemy. Both of them would have a strong bond with you, even though the energy readings would be vastly different, and neither of them would compete with the bond you have with a family member. Shit like that.”

Angus had only  _ kind of _ understood it then, and he only vaguely understood it now. What he  _ did _ know, though, was that there were a lot of lost sewer rooms underneath Neverwinter. Even before the city was rebuilt, there were plenty of places underground where someone could stash the engine and just  _ leech _ power. 

This? This was all an extreme.

Angus had a couple of ideas dancing through his head, but he always had ideas going through his head. He wasn't sure of anything whatsoever, and he hated the feeling. 

He took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down. He made his feet stop, planting himself firmly on the edge of the cot. His leg started bouncing, but he couldn't win everything. 

Clearly, the masked guys needed to isolate people for whatever they were doing. Running with the theory that these were the same scientists who were laid off when this bio lab was closed, Angus could assume that they were running tests on the engine itself. So they were an isolated case, a study to the effect of the engine in some way. 

Was the Sorcerer thing _ because _ of that? Had they planned to bring in a new group after a while, something other than Sorcerer? And if that was the case, had they planned to release the kids, or kill them?

Angus chewed on his lip. If that was the reason behind the kids all being Sorcerers, then him being in this environment made less sense. Unless they could exclude him from their research data, all his presence did was mess with the results. So the Sorcerer thing had to be for a different reason entirely. 

But what? Because of the magic thing? He had to assume that was the case and move on for now, or else he was never going to get anywhere. 

Which still left him with questions. Why make a bond engine? The Starblaster needed a bond engine because they were going into deep space with little chance of finding fuel. Out here, clearly they were using the bond engine to power the lab. But there was bound to be excess energy, and, in any case, if the kidnappers only goal was to power the lab then that was a pretty ridiculous reason to kidnap 31 children. 

He also still didn't know how they were even  _ doing _ the kidnappings, so there was that to think about too. 

31 children was a  _ lot _ of kids. He had heard the stories about the final stand against the Hunger, and that was what the bond engine had achieved with the continuous use of just  _ seven _ people. Granted, that was over the course of a very stressful century, but the number of children in the building worried Angus. He literally, physically, couldn’t do the math, he’d have to have Barry for that, but he could imagine the energy output gathered from 31 people, even in a short time, was a  _ lot _ . 

Were they trying to achieve the same, or a similar, effect that the bond engine had had in the final stand? How many people even _knew_ about that? Angus shook his head and ruled it out; the scientists were trying to achieve _something_ through bond science, but miracles might not be it. Angus was interrupted from his thoughts as a noise just _wailed_ on him. He clapped his hands over his ears, standing up with a start, and looking around the room in a panic. Fixed into one corner, near the door, was a small speaker. Small, but giving off an _ungodly_ amount of noise. The wailing alarm continued for a brief few seconds, then cut out. 

Tentatively, Angus lowered his hands. The noise had been so loud his ear drums were ringing a bit, the white noise sounding uncomfortably like static. He waited for a moment, to see what happened next.

The door to his cell opened with a long creak. Standing at the entrance this time was another masked person, different from the other two in very subtle ways. They opened the door all the way, then crossed their arms. 

“Well,” They said, sounding almost bored. “Guess I shouldn’t be surprised.” They sighed, seemingly talking more to themself than to Angus. Finally they shook their head and addressed him directly. “Come on kid, we have work to do.”

Angus raised an eyebrow at them. “Mx, you never disarmed the trap.” He said, staying put. 

They didn’t move. “Maybe I want you to get shocked.”

Angus crossed his arms, mirroring their pose. Neither moved for a solid second.

“Fair enough, then.” They said, pulling the charm out of their pocket. Again, Angus couldn’t see it, it was completely encompassed in their fist. They waved it through the door frame, the charm giving off a small electrical noise, then waved a hand.

“I suppose you know that I can cast ridiculously high level spells, yes?” They said as Angus stepped forward.

“I believe I can assume that, yes.”

“Then you know how stupid running is?”

Angus’s expression was already as serious as it got, but he felt something in his core tighten a bit. “I can guess.” Was all he said.

“Good, can’t stand physical contact.” They gestured for him to go ahead of them. 

They didn’t go far. The masked figure walked him just down the hall, to the lab door set in the turn in the hall. They swiped a keycard through the reader, then held the door open for Angus. 

Angus wasn’t entirely sure what to expect, heading into the mystery lab, so what he saw didn’t really  _ surprise _ him. Baffled him, sure, but he couldn’t say he was surprised. Surprised implied he had had previous suspciousions. 

Inside the windowless lab was the large, bulking figure of the bond engine. Not to say it was obvious that it  _ was _ a bond engine; this hulking mass wasn’t anything like the one fixed to the Starblaster, nothing at all like the almost graceful ring of white metal. This was more like a large cylinder, with a good deal of ports and screens stuck to the outside, a very small ring fixed to the narrowed top. The ring was spinning as energy was being collected, that energy pinging different readings on the scanners, then syphoned down the various cabled coming off the engine into various openings in the ceiling and floor. 

The sight was impressive, certainly, but Angus got a weird, Frankenstein like vibe looking at the engine. It didn’t help that the engine was big enough he wouldn’t have been able to stretch his arms around it, and was almost too tall for this high ceiling lab. 

Angus tore his eyes away as his captor huffed behind him, getting him to move further into the room.

In here was the missing Miller lab equipment, looking almost exactly as Lucas had described them. A centrifuge machine was whirling against one wall, while the particle detector was making some kind of racket, and filling in the space between them was a couple of monitors and consoles. Tables filled in the rest of the lab, giving the occupants of the lab plenty of counter space to work of. There were three white boards on the far wall, filled with scribbles Angus knew he wouldn’t be able decipher even if he was close enough to read it.

Also in the room was the other two masked figures. With the three of them all standing next to each other, it was  _ way  _ more obvious that they were very different people, despite the fact that they all dressed the same. 

The person Angus had talked to in the office was talking to the person from the elevator, neither stopping the science babble as the other one gestured to a lone chair in the room.

“Have a seat,” They said.

Angus wasn’t an idiot. You didn’t keep chairs in a lab, you kept stools. Proving this was the fact that this was the only proper chair in the lab. Still, there wasn’t much else he could do. He sat down, arms resting casually on the armrests, then waited.

When the masked person walked away, he had frowned a bit, but then tried to move. Somehow, without alerting him, some spell had made him paralyzed from the neck down. He could still speak, could still breathe, but he couldn’t even shrug his shoulders. He kept the small spark of panic concealed, relaxing his muscles. He could fight the effect better if he didn't initially struggle. He had to conserve his strength.

The three masked figures chatted for a moment.

“Productivity is still the same, no outright changes in the panic.” The one from the office explained. They had been called the Headmistress before, but Angus still wasn’t entirely sure of their gender.

“Odd,” The one Angus just met said. “You’d think we’d see a higher output.”

The masked person from the elevator shrugged. “We’re working with the unknown, anything could happen.” They turned to stare at Angus, looking him over for a moment or two. They then turned back to their companions. “I estimate about sixteen hours before this lab is overrun.”

“I agree,” The Headmistress said. “So long as Evan is doing his job, we’ll be fine.”

“Are you sure about that? Other than the broadcast, we don’t know much about the I.P.R.E., or the Bureau.”

“The Bureau of today is comprised of idiot humanitarians.” The masked figure from the elevator snapped. “And any of its previous members could easily be subdue. They don’t have the same century of experience, I tell you.”

The quieter one, the one Angus had just met, hummed in thought. “Could we not discuss this later? You told me to get McDonald.”

The Headmistress looked back over at Angus. That the three of them were able to share some kind of meaningful look through the masks spoke volumes to the detective. 

These three were family. Possibly blood related, possibly they were related in the same way Angus’s family was. But there was a serious amount of  _ understanding _ passing between them in looks they couldn’t even see.

The Headmistress walked closer.

“Mr. McDonald.” They said, as plain as if this was a business meeting. “On a scale of 1 to 10, how much would you say you miss your home?”

“0” Angus said, without hesitation. He wasn’t giving them any satisfaction.

The three of them paused, then the quiet one busted up laughing.

“ _ Oooh _ man.” They said, “Oh man, bro you owe me twenty gold. Fucking  _ detective _ , of course he figured it out. Especially when you had to fucking  _ monologue  _ at him!”

The masked person from the elevator huffed as the Headmistress waved a hand. 

“Excuse the idiots.” They said, both sounding like a sibling to the other two and also a inditimating bad guy, despite how much those two should not have been similar. The Headmistress walked over to the bond engine, pulling a tablet out of shelf built into the machine. The screen had a cord linking it back to the machine, clearly there to showcase  _ something _ about the engine.

“McDonald’s outputs haven’t changed, despite figuring it out.” The Headmistress said. 

“Of course not,” The quiet one responded. “He’s still missing people and shit. This setup is foolproof.” 

Given the subtle shaking of the Headmistress’s head, they disagreed. They returned the tablet to its shelf, then crossed the room to the particle detector. 

Angus’s attention snapped back to the meaner of the three, the one from the elevator, as they stalked closer. They passed him by, organizing something on a counter just out of Angus’s line of sight.

“You really think this’ll change things?” The meaner one asked.

“I think we’ll learn something, for sure.” The quieter one responded. 

Angus couldn’t lean far enough to see what was going on outside of his peripheral, and he wasn’t sure he wanted to know. The masked figure came back into view, holding something in their hands.

Angus didn’t know better. He took a glance at the pendant. 

Things went fuzzy after that.

 

~~

 

Magnus Burnsides liked to rush into things. It was, like, literally his whole deal. Thinking was for other people, he just  _ did _ things. Sure, somewhere buried inside of him was the tactician training he had sat through to receive the job for the I.P.R.E., but along the way tactics stopped mattering. Who cared if he died when he came back? 

(The answer to that question was “everyone” and “he used to get into so much trouble for being reckless” but that all with neither here nor there.)

The point was, Magnus normally didn’t make plans ahead of time. He just ...  _ rushed in _ . 

But he had been trying to get better about that, especially after the Story and Song. He had reason to now, after everything, as dying for a cause held less appeal than getting home at the end of the day.

So with this he had made sure to have a  _ plan _ . With Lucretia watching Beth - dropping the kid off at her proper home would lead to too many questions they didn’t yet have time for - they were down one powerful wizard. They kind of recovered a bit with the additions of Killian and Carey, and Merle of course, but going into the mess was going to be crazy. They needed everything they could get their hands on. 

Which, by the time they were ready to put any semblance of a plan into action, wasn’t a whole heck of a lot.

Well, ok, no, it  _ was _ a lot. They had three very powerful Reapers on their side, who could teleport them almost directly to where they needed to go, and a good handful of powerful wizards, a powerful cleric, two badass fighters, and a really dope rogue. But Magnus still wasn’t certain it was  _ enough _ .

It wasn’t often they went in blind. Sure they had a vague knowledge of the building and the people in it, but without know what this whole ...  _ thing _ was about, they couldn’t begin to guess what kind of resistance they’d meet when they busted down doors. And they might all be badass, but Magnus had a century behind him to know that being  _ badass _ didn’t always meant  _ the strongest person in the room _ . 

Still, they were about as ready as they were ever going to be. And, hey, maybe this would all be super easy and he was worried for nothing. 

“We good to go?” Magnus asked the room. He got a sea of nods back. He twisted his hands over the handle of Railsplitter, a nervous habit he’d never kicked. “Alright, well, fuck then.

“Let’s do this” 


End file.
